Jim Allister said:
“While recognising the orchestrated pressure on AQE, I very much regret the cancellation of the February test. This will produce a largely unregulated scramble for transfer places and remove from the system a fair and objective system of transfer.
“The anti-selection lobby will now feel energised to pursue further their assault on our grammar schools – though some of them foolishly aided the process of aborting the AQE test by opting out. It is notable that those who did opt out were essentially those with fee-paying preparatory departments and they will now seek to bolster the future of their “preps” by showing favour in their admission criteria to those pupils, creating an inequity which the transfer tests prevented.”