No delay to school return after Christmas, says Education Minister

by PA Media

The Education Minister has insisted there are no plans to delay the return of schools after the Christmas break.

Peter Weir said the suggestion was an unfounded rumour.

Mr Weir, who has already dismissed calls to close schools early in the run up to Christmas, said maximising face-to-face teaching time was his main priority.

During Assembly question time, the minister also rejected calls to scrap exams next year due to the ongoing effect of the coronavirus pandemic.

He told MLAs: “In Northern Ireland, perhaps unsurprisingly, rumours will always abound – there’s no plans to delay the return to school in January.

“I want to see as full an opportunity for our young people to have that direct education as possible. So let’s make sure that there aren’t rumours started which again don’t have any substance to them.”

Calls for an extension of the school holidays have come amid widespread expectation that Covid-19 infection rates will increase when the current circuit break lockdown ends on December 11 and when more mixing of families is permitted over the festive period.

Addressing the Assembly, Mr Weir said cancelling exams in Northern Ireland next year would put students at a disadvantage over pupils in Great Britain and the Irish Republic who would be taking exams.

Peter Weir says "there’s no plans to delay the return to school in January".

“If we were the only jurisdiction that in all forms was abandoning examinations, where would that leave some of our students when making comparisons when it comes to university places and obtaining those places?” he asked.

“So, you know, rather than snatching at a populist headline we’ve actually got to think this through as to where it actually leaves our students in that regard.”

The minister said he would also not intervene to force secondary schools to ditch academic selection.

Mr Weir stressed it was for schools to determine their entrance qualification and said some that had decided to abandon the transfer test this year were instead using “genetics”, referencing criteria such as whether a parent or sibling attended previously.

“Whatever criticisms are there from the point of view of academic selection, at least it is on the basis of the individual merits of the applicant,” he said.

Mr Weir said he would not be the minister who “destroyed” the grammar school system.

“I’m not intending to force academic selection on anyone but neither am I intending to take that right away from schools,” he said.