Admission to post-primary schools is being examined

The Governing Bodies Association said admission based on parental choice was "unwelcome, unwise and unworkable."

The GBA's Sir Kenneth Bloomfield said it would not extend parental choice.

"They will not make it more likely that children and young people will be matched to schools which suit their educational needs," he said.

Consultation on the what will replace the transfer test continues until 30 June.

Sir Kenneth said the GBA did not want a return to an 11-plus system and was not "driven by a desire to protect the interests of grammar schools at the expense of others".

He said the best way forward was "through a robust and well-informed pupil profile that is shared with potential receiving schools and used to enable the best possible match".

"It will make these points to the Department of Education and urge parents and all those interested in the future of education in Northern Ireland to respond to the consultation process and make their dissatisfaction and dismay with what has been proposed very clear," he said.

After 2008, grammar schools will no longer be able to choose pupils on the basis of their academic performance with the end of the transfer test.

The department wants "informed parental and pupil choice" to underpin the new admissions arrangements using a pupil profile.

Teachers in 14 primary and four post-primary schools are helping develop pupil profiles which will be easily compiled by schools.

The profiles will track a pupil's achievements and interests though the whole school career, and they will be ready for use in 2007.

In January, the Department of Education published a list of options for what should happen when the 11-plus transfer test ends.

The department said the intelligence of a pupil would not be permitted as a factor. The decision to abolish the 11-plus transfer test and academic selection in Northern Ireland was announced in January 2004.