A survey of opinions on the 11-plus shows most people in Northern Ireland feel 11 is too young an age to be tested.

Three-quarters of those asked said all children should attend the same sort of school until they are 14.

The survey was taken among 1,800 people.

Unless this is handled very carefully indeed, there is a real danger of doing irreparable harm Roy Beggs UUP

About 75% of respondents said the transfer tests put too much pressure on 10 and 11-year-olds.

However, the results also showed that 69% believed pupils who did not go to a grammar school still got a first rate education.

The Life and Times Survey was carried out jointly by Queen's University and the University of Ulster in 2001.

A similar survey was carried out in 1999, when the results were slightly different.

Recent opinion is that people are more likely to say the 11-plus should be changed.

'Academic selection'

However, while they are more likely to agree that selection has to happen at some time in a child's education, most believe a system of separate grammar and secondary schools is unfair.

Meanwhile, the Ulster Unionists have failed in their bid to force the education minister to retain academic selection in Northern Ireland.

The party took the lead in a half-day debate in the House of Commons on Tuesday on the future of academic selection.

Ulster Unionist politicians were outraged when former Education Minister Martin McGuinness announced the final 11-plus transfer test would be in November 2004.

David Trimble: "They will go private in ways which will reinforce sectarian divisions"

His direct rule successor, Jane Kennedy, said she would also aim to abolish the test, but added that she could not promise to stick to that deadline.

Ulster Unionist education spokesman Roy Beggs described his "utter amazement" when ministers in Westminster immediately indicated they would carry out the policy of Mr McGuinness.

Mr Beggs asked Northern Ireland Office minister Jane Kennedy if it would not serve the education needs of schoolchildren if the current system was retained until a final replacement system was found.

Ms Kennedy said no decisions had been made on either the future of the 11-plus or academic selection but she said she understood parents wanted to know what was to happen.

She assured MPs she would make some decisions within a very few weeks.

Shadow Northern Ireland secretary Quentin Davies also urged ministers to "leave well alone" until and unless a better selection mechanism could be drawn up.

Mr Davies said it was a matter of regret that the assembly was not in being to decide such issues.

Winding up the debate, Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble warned that if a comprehensive education model was adopted, it would drive schools out of the state system.

"They will go private. They will go private in ways which will reinforce the sectarian divisions and make them worse."

Burns proposal

The Ulster Unionist motion was defeated and a government sponsored amendment, signed by Tony Blair and removing all references to selection, was approved without a vote.

The 11-plus exam is a selection test for children in primary seven and determines to which type of school they will transfer.

The Burns review of Northern Ireland's education system, set up by Mr McGuinness, recommended an end to the test.

Grammar schools are against the Burns proposal and have argued for the retention of some sort of academic selection.

They want the right to choose pupils of the highest ability, while others feel the plans are not radical enough.