Council backed a motion put forward by the DUP's Deirdre Nelson which said: 'Ballymena Borough Council calls upon the Minister for Education to immediately publish her plans for transfer to post-primary schools and thereby alleviate public concern around this issue'.

Mrs Nelson, whose motion was seconded by Cllr Hubert Nicholl, has also asked that Council send a letter ot the Minister for Education informing her of the decision, together with a request that she provides details of her ideas to give parents, teachers, schools and children certainty surrounding their educational future.

She said: "Academic selection remains enshrined in law in Northern Ireland and it is thanks to the DUP that we shall not be moving down the road to the comprehensive system that has failed children in England and Wales for 40 years.

"Having apparently decided in her own mind that the retentionof academic selection in law did not override her own ideological position, Ms Ruane's statement simply further confused the majority of stakeholders in Northern Ireland as to what will happen from 2009.

"The Minister also made a number of proposals which I am not convinced have been sanctioned by her party leadership. These have varied from unworkable ideas such as selection based on geograpical proximity to schools to notions of area-based planning to pupil profiling. Georgraphical proximity to schools has two immediate problems as a fair selection tool. In an urban area this will mean that houses within catchment areas will increase in price near to schools which are perceived to be desirable by parents. This then essentially becomes selection by wealth and children form socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds will be denied the chance of such an education. In rural areas many children will simply fall through the gap and have no adequate provision at all."

Pupil profiling, said Cllr Nelson, was not an ideal solution either.

She said: "As it depends on a teacher assessment, pressure could be placed on teachers by parents who are naturally anxious to get the best for their child. Also, it is extremely subjective and a ch8ild who is not popular with his or her teacher may be discriminated against by that teacher. Externally controlled and moderated tests are the fairest and most socially just method of assessment.

"Academic selection using a standardised verbal reasoning test based on IQ is not elitist. It is using the correct tool to pick a certain type of individual and matching them to a specific type of education."

Mrs Nelson pointed out that the issue of falling rolls in schools was 'under the radar'. She added: "Money could be freed up by following the DUP's preferred method of state education, which is that all children are educated together. If you want a child educated in a faith school or Irish medium, then parents should be paying for that rather than holding the rest of society to ransom.