Exam body AQE has confirmed it is still planning to hold its single rescheduled transfer test next month - and gave an assurance that further clarity will be provided.
The exam body continued: We do understand the frustration of schools, parents and the children around this highly complex matter and give our assurance that further clarity will be provided at the very earliest possible opportunity, following ongoing discussions with our stakeholder partners .
Earlier the exam body called on the Bishop of Derry to retract his comments that the transfer test process had become big business .
Bishop Donal McKeown had warned that financial gain should not dominate the conversation around the test process.
Responding to Bishop McKeown’s comments, the directors of AQE told BBC NI that his comments were “highly defamatory” and that his “statement completely lacked accuracy and was pejorative in tone”.
“The statement made by the bishop and broadcast by the BBC was highly defamatory not just of AQE Limited but also of those individuals who are the members of AQE Limited and of those who serve it as its directors and officers, carrying, as it does, the clear innuendo that such persons are acting from motives of pure self-interest,” the body said.
“AQE Limited does not engage in ‘business’, in the normally accepted meaning of that word.
Transfer Test: Northern Ireland schools begin to opt out of using AQE exam
It comes after the AQE announced a single paper for February 27
Updated (Image: Getty Images)
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Schools will go ahead with transfer test plans this year despite the earlier postponement of the exams
Single test to be held at end of February for admission to grammar schools
Foyle College is one of the schools continuing with the transfer test this year.
Reporter: );
The transfer test for admission to grammar schools in Northern Ireland has been rescheduled.
It was announced earlier today that the tests, which had been due to start this weekend, would be cancelled because of the current coronavirus wave.
Many believed that this would result in the tests not going ahead this year.
Mum brands AQE heartless over one transfer test plan
The private firm cancelled its January exams then said they will host one in February
For some children worries about the Transfer Test can be too much to cope with
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