Professor John FitzGerald:

It could happen. When the 11-plus exam was abolished by Caitríona Ruane who was the Sinn Féin education minister, it was disastrous because now the selection to grammar schools is much more arbitrary. I was very critical of this but it was a very senior member of the SDLP who said to me not to blame Caitríona Ruane and that she was prevented by the rest of the administration. Having presented the evidence done on education in Northern Ireland the resistance is huge from parents whose kids are in good grammar schools with great prospects. That is something Northern Ireland has to address. It is a difficult question and certainly none of the parties seems to have a policy on how to deal with that.