To ask the Minister of Education how he will ensure the admissions criteria used by post primary schools in South Belfast for September 2021 do not discriminate unduly against first-born children and only child households.

Article 16 of the Education (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 requires Boards of Governors of individual schools to draw up and from time to time amend the criteria to be applied in selecting pupils for admission to their school in the event of the school being oversubscribed with applicants.

My Department provides schools with guidance on the post-primary admissions process, including on the use of recommended and not recommended criteria, however the content of a school’s admissions criteria is solely a matter for Boards of Governors and not one in which my Department can intervene.

I wrote to post-primary schools in January 2021 to advise them that they may wish to take legal advice in respect of their admissions criteria and all post-primary schools’ admissions criteria have now been published online by the Education Authority.