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The row over transfer tests for primary 7 pupils is no closer to being settled after heated exchanges at the NI Executive. The Education Minster faced further calls to cancel the process completely, with a single test, run by AQE, scheduled to go ahead on February 27. But the decision looks like it is slowly being taken out of the hands of AQE and the minister with five schools already abandoning the test. DUP leader Arlene Foster denied blocking a call to put the issue to a vote and it was agreed at the Executive meeting that Peter Weir will now present a paper on the issue at the end of nex...

Live updates: New coronavirus regulations in Northern Ireland come into force You must stay at home New coronavirus restrictions have come into force in Northern Ireland today [Friday]. A stay at home order came into force at midnight and ministers have asked the public to adhere to the new regulations as coronavirus cases continue to rise across the country. The Executive met today to discuss Covid-19 restrictions and the transfer test. Private firm AQE said early on Tuesday it had decided to cancel its January exams following an Executive decision to close schools for face-to-face teaching....

GCSE and A-level exams have been cancelled Rebecca Black, PA 06 January, 2021 16:28 Plans for a post-primary transfer test while GCSE and A-level exams are cancelled have been branded "ludicrous". However, this afternoon, Strabane Academy - which uses the AQE test to evaluate pupils - wrote to parents of P7 pupils to say they will not facilitate the additional planned test due to ongoing uncertainty. In its letter to parents, the school said "in these exceptional and unprecedented circumstances, we have taken this decision based on; what we believe is...

The chair of Stormont’s Education Committee has said the Education Minister has failed thousands of primary school children as they prepare to sit the first transfer test on Saturday. The first of three AQE exams papers will be sat by around 8,000 P7 pupils on Saturday, despite calls for the tests to be postponed or cancelled as schools move to remote learning as the number of Covid cases in the community continues to soar. Read More Pupils hoping to attend grammar schools in Northern Ireland will sit two further AQE papers on January 16 and January 23, while transfer tests run by t...

Alarm over transfer test plans 03 January, 2021 01:00 While there are sincere and informed voices on all sides in the debate over post-primary transfer arrangements, it has been clear for some time that momentum is shifting decisively away from the staging of private tests. There was widespread relief last summer when a range of grammar schools, mainly in the Catholic sector, said that they were temporarily suspending the use of academic criteria for admissions, due to serious concerns over the coronavirus crisis. However, to the surprise of many observers, the Association ...