By ED CURRAN I don't think the Stormont Executive was ever invented to survive your education policy and it is worth asking the question: Can it? People are saying they are confused. They don't understand what you, as Education Minister, are doing.

It leads me to wonder what the association for those schools not part of AQE should be called? The Association for Bog Standard Education, the Association for Second Rate Education or the Association for Sub-Standard Education perhaps? What is the effect on those children that don't pass a selection test at 11 years of age? If it is not positive then why have it? With comprehensive education for all, children can be given the type of education most suited to them without being made to feel that they have somehow failed at 11.

By Richard Garner Education Editor A leading grammar school will become the first selective state school to sponsor a secondary modern which is gearing up to become one of the Government's flagship academies.

By Catherine Priestley PARENTS whose children would attend a proposed new school if two merge have been airing their hopes and fears about the plan.

CONSULTATION has begun on a proposal to merge two secondary schools in County Durham. Durham County Council's proposal would see a new school being built to replace Spennymoor Comprehensive School and Tudhoe Grange School.