THE STORMONT Executive has failed to agree school reform proposals, with Sinn Féin and the DUP blaming each other for the impasse.
Minister for Education Caitríona Ruane emerged from a key meeting of the powersharing Executive at which she proposed her long-awaited reforms claiming the other parties had prevented discussion of her plans.
These had been leaked on Tuesday and appeared to represent a compromise over a replacement for the controversial 11-plus transfer test due for abolition next November.
DUP leader and First Minister the Rev Ian Paisley said Ms Ruane's proposals could not form the basis for progress. He warned the Sinn Féin Minister that she could not proceed on any changes to the schools transfer procedure without unionist support.
Dr Paisley, accompanied by all other DUP ministers, spoke bluntly against the Minister's pledge to scrap all forms of testing to decide admission to second-level schools.
"The DUP position is that academic selection must remain as part of the transfer procedure," he said. "Schools must have the right to select pupils on the basis of their academic ability. The Minister for Education's proposals, as currently framed, are totally unacceptable and do not form a basis for moving forward."
He claimed the DUP has a "legislative guarantee", won at the St Andrews talks on devolution in 2006, that so-called academic selection can and will remain. "We will not accept less," he warned.
"The Education Minister can make any suggestion she wants to," he added. "However, it will not come into force until she has the support of the DUP and the endorsement of the Executive."
Dr Paisley argued that his Ministers and those from other parties had made proposals but that Sinn Féin had blocked them. "We supported a proposal for a sub-committee of the Executive to deal with this," he said.
"This was rejected by Sinn Féin. We supported a proposal by [ SDLP Minister] Margaret Ritchie that the Executive as a whole should discuss the issue of post-primary education. This was rejected by Sinn Féin."
Stressing the scale of the split between the leading parties on the Executive, he concluded: "This is an entirely unacceptable position by Sinn Féin."
Ms Ruane later responded, criticising others in the Executive "who were anti-change in relation to education". Referring to Ministers from both unionist parties and the SDLP, she added: "It is disappointing that colleagues who claimed that they wanted a discussion on the proposals didn't even engage." She branded the move not to discuss her plans for abolition of academic selection as anti-progressive and vowed to press ahead regardless.
The Minister revealed that she had proposed that special Executive meetings be held to hammer out agreement on the issue.
"What happened today was an attempt to frustrate change," she said. "I will not be frustrated and I am not demoralised. This year is the last year of the 11-plus. These proposals are sensible . . . we need change and I am going to be the Education Minister who brings about that change."
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness singled out the SDLP for criticism. "There is huge disappointment that Margaret Ritchie in adopting the stance that she did, effectively aligning herself with the unionist parties, has done a grave disservice to education and to the huge demand for change," he said.
Unionist Ministers, he added, had contradicted their stated positions by criticising Ms Ruane for taking time to consult and draw up her proposals and then blocking discussion on them at the Executive.