The AQE exams board has announced that a single transfer test will now take place in Northern Ireland in February.
In an updated statement issued on Tuesday night, the board said "following a meeting with schools' to enable the assessment to take place in the current circumstances, the assessment will be reduced to a single paper.
The news comes after earlier it was announced the transfer tests would not take place in Northern Ireland due to current restrictions. P7s were due to take the exams on January 9, 16 and 23.
A single exam will now take place on Saturday, February 27 'provided it can take place in public health circumstances then prevailing.'
Turning their attention to the question of why the postponement and not cancellation, they said: "Inevitably, the question will be asked why the assessment has been rescheduled rather than scrapped, and in response the following considerations are relevant:
• in the absence of academic criteria, many schools would be likely to be even more oversubscribed than in a normal year and academic performance in an assessment would be replaced by other more random criteria, such family ties, geographical proximity to a school or some form of lottery for places. It is the view of the member schools that academic selection represents the fairest way of allocating grammar school places;
• the schools who use the assessment are encouraged by communications from parents who have stated that their children are ready and willing to sit the assessment and they want the opportunity to do so;
• the education provided by our variety of post-primary schools offers the best choice for parents and meets the needs of pupils of all ability levels much better than the postcode comprehensive system which operates elsewhere; and
• while information was available from post-primary schools to provide grades in GCSEs, A levels and BTec qualifications in 2020, AQE does not have access to alternative information from primary schools which could be used to match pupils to schools.
Reacting to the news, Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill tweeted: "Shame on AQE for proceeding with this transfer test. They told children this morning there would be no test and then this evening they say there will be a test.
"A private company putting its needs before the needs of the children. Education minister must act now."
