"Ruane: An Extraordinarily Inept Minister"

"Catriona Ruane has proved herself to be an extraordinarily inept Minister of Education. Far from providing the 'clarity and certainty' she has rattled on about say May 2007, she has, in fact, enveloped the entire transfer process in a fog of uncertainty, guff, jargon and downright nonsense.

"Rather than offer a solution which relieves stress on P6/P7 children, she has multiplied their stress and passed it on to parents, principals and class teachers as well.

"When will she realize that it is not her job to wage an ideological war? When will she realize that it is not her job to treat primary school children as guinea pigs? When will she realize that her only task is to prepare ten and eleven year olds for the rest of their lives?

"If truth be told, rather than providing a forward thinking strategy for the future, she has managed to drag us back to the late 1920s. Grammar schools are already opting out of her system and it now looks as though Catholic and Protestant grammars will go their own way in terms of entrance exams.

"But maybe that's what she wants to happen? Maybe she wants the perpetuation of an 'us-and-them' culture which will keep our children apart and educated separately. Maybe she is motivated as much by republican ideology as by a self-serving opposition to the 11+ and academic selection.

"In terms of policy, strategy, logic and delivery she has been an utter, utter disaster. She has thrown the transfer system into chaos: she has confused parents; she has divided schools; and, worst of all, she has jeopardized the educational future of tens of thousands of children.

"There is no end to her incompetence and no beginning to her commonsense. It is one of the worst aspects of this present Executive Committee carve-up, that it is not possible for a majority of the Executive or a majority of the Assembly itself to force her resignation.

"The Minister is demonstrably bad at her job; deaf to advice or criticism; blind to the ongoing consequences of her ideological stupidity; and fundamentally incapable of doing her job. Put bluntly---she is an absolute disgrace.

"It really is time that she offered her resignation