Saying he would not support a motion put forward by DUP councillor Deirdre Nelson seeking clarification from Catriona Ruane on post 11-plus arrangements, Cllr Stirling said: “I would question the intellectual authority of New Age DUP, as a party, in engaging in any aspect of educational debate. I listen regularly to programmes of political debate and discussion. I am astounded to find that even at ministerial level there is displayed an abysmal ignorance of basic English grammar.

“Edwin Poots, MLA, is referred to as the Minister of Culture. But the unfortunate Edwin finds himself linguistically challenged. He is able to state: ‘We have saw..’ instead of ‘we have seen’. Is there no one within new Age DUP who can take him aside and explain that acceptable English is ‘we saw’ or ‘we have seen’ but never, never, never ‘we have saw’. I don’t suppose that such violation of our language will upset this uncultured Minister or indeed his New Age DUP followers.

“Edwin Poots has no need to feel isolated, however, in his intellectual darkness. He has company, none other than Arlene Foster, Minister for the Department of the Environment. Arlene has her problems too in live self-expression. Recently in a broadcast she used the phrase ‘have took’ instead of ‘have taken’. Surely that makes a literate person wince.

“Peter Robinson too should learn that we do not say, ‘There are a number of possibilities’ - as number is singular he should state ‘There is a number of possibilities’.

“Has New Age DUP, negligent in observing fundamental rules of English expression, authority in matters of education? Do the MLAs I have singled out present a fitting example in spoken English for our school children of all ages?

“If Paisley had not recanted on four decades of stated principles Catriona Ruane would not have been in a position to attempt any act of sabotage on the present system until alternative arrangements were in place. Paisley achieved his mandate through blatant lies, instilling a fear of Plan B. Listen to Jonathan Powell in his recently published book, ‘Great Hatred, Little Room’. Powell writes as follows on page 254.

“McGuinness and Adams wanted us to work up a Plan B to give the Republic a greater say in the affairs of the North. I said they should be realistic - we were not going to make N. Ireland ungovernable by provoking unionists too far.”

It is my view that any debate on the way forward for our education system should address the findings of OECD - the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. This body has a programme for international student assessment (PISA). PISA conducts internationally standardised assessments for 15-year-olds.

In the 2006 Maths Assessments 18 countries had mean scores higher than N Ireland. N.