Martin McGuinness: Report welcomed

The review body said �45m should be allocated to raise the standards of equipment and buildings in some schools.

The chairman of the review body, Gerry Burns, said it was a jigsaw plan that must be implemented as a whole without cherry-picking.

"It is crucial that the proposals we are unveiling today are taken as an integral package, rather than separate and free-standing components.

"Our recommendations can ensure that, through a new educational dispensation, our education system will be second to none," said Mr Burns.

Consultation

The review was ordered last year by Education Minister Martin McGuinness and is now open to consultation for the next six months.

Mr McGuinness called on everyone to take part in that process.

"Obviously the 11-plus isn't going to end this year and in all probability not next year.

Sammy Wilson: Report authors criticised

"But this important report I think undoubtedly poses all of us with a huge challenge in relation to the need to put in place proper post-primary education," he said.

Democratic Unionist Party education spokesman Sammy Wilson criticised the report.

"If the level of assessment were applied to the Burns report in 11-plus terms it would get a D grade," he said.

SDLP education spokesperson Patricia Lewsley welcomed the scrapping of the test.

She said: "We have maintained our opposition to selection on the grounds that the system is unfair."