Debate contribution: Academic Selection

Debate contribution by Mr Danny Baker on 3 February 2026.

MLA

Mr Danny Baker

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

3 February 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Academic Selection

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5362557

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I do not know how to follow that. Maybe the Ulster Unionist Party need a more robust leadership content. Academic selection warps our whole education system. You do not want any child to feel like a failure. You want to give them all the best opportunities in life. However, the reality is that this is not about grammar schools or comprehensive schools; it is about a process that makes you feel like a failure. I do not have to go too far to find that, because it made me feel like a failure when I did the 11-plus back in 1993. It took a long process for me to get to where I am today. Some might say, "He is talking nonsense. That is about privilege: he is an MLA and a former mayor". I got lucky, but not everybody gets lucky; they really do not. That luck did not come from one particular thing. It was because I went to school that had teachers who looked out for all the kids. That is why I intervened earlier to say that the same schools are doing the heavy lifting. There were a lot of challenges in my school. It was not simply about getting the books out and getting your GCSEs: there was so much more going on. Grammar schools probably do not have to face that. It is great that their school leaders get those grades, but many of our schools are getting young people from a grade E or F to a grade C. That is how it was with me. I went from the prospect of having no GCSEs, except for maybe the practical ones — art and PE — that I was good at, to getting the rest of them by the skin of my teeth. That is what I meant about having a bit of luck. You build confidence with that bit of luck. We took part in the Speaker's Book Week event, and I remembered reading 'The Lord of the Rings' one summer back in the 1990s. That was the first book — it was a big book — that I read from start to finish. It engulfed me and made me believe that I could do A levels. I went on and did really well in my A levels. Some of my friends whom I grew up with went to grammar schools but did not come out with the same A levels as I did. I went on to get a degree and then to do a trade, and then I found my way here.

Yes. Go ahead.

That is why I said that I got lucky. I could easily have fallen through the cracks like many young boys whom I went to school with. Some of them, sadly, are no longer with us. No, I do not recognise that. I really do not. I did not have the opportunities that other ones might have had who took the different pathway of grammar school. It is how you feel. It is that feeling of failure, and that stays with many young people throughout their whole educational career or pathway or whatever you want to call it. That has a knock-on effect. The evidence shows all of that. The Children's Commissioner and the Children's Law Centre will tell you that. All of the evidence will tell you that it fails all of our young people. It works for some, yes, absolutely. I have shared my story before, and I am proud to share it, because it inspires other young people. When I was Mayor of Belfast, I made a wee video. I set my phone down afterwards, and it went viral. A family reached out to me to say that their young lad had failed and had not left his room for three days. That is what the test does. The child had not left his room. I invited the family down to the parlour and said, "If I can get here, anyone can get here". Last year, the young lad wrote to me to say that he had got all of his GCSEs. You may take that as a success story, and it is, but, again, he got lucky. It should not be like that. We should all be able to get the same education and the same pathway, and the exam does not do that because it makes us feel like failures. Despite all the evidence and research on the impact that it has on our young people, I have no faith that the Minister will address it, because he picks and chooses evidence to suit his narrative. In recent months, the Minister has outlined his plans to make substantial changes to A levels and GCSEs, and he is on record saying that pupils are being over-tested in schools and that he plans to remove teaching to the test. He said at our Education Committee:

"So much time is being spent in preparation for exams, time off school when it comes to even your mocks, being coached as to the technique when it comes to answer questions. All of that is taking away from the ability to actually sit in the class, engage in the subject matter and to learn about it. Parents who have the money will pay for tutors to get children caught up. My approach will benefit the working class more than the current system."

Children being tutored to that test flies in the face of academic selection. The Chair of the Education Committee said the same thing. We need to stop chasing league tables. We need to start looking at the future of our young people, and that means every one of them. We need to support all of our school leaders, because, as I said at the start, too many schools are doing the heavy lifting, and it is just not fair. It breeds inequality, and we have to stamp it out because that is what we are here to do. We are meant to be leaders in doing that, and we need to support all of our children.

1,022 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not qualifying

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:26 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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