<Tr> <Td> Stretford </Td> <Td> 327 </Td> <Td> 30 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Urmston </Td> <Td> 328 </Td> <Td> 30 </Td> </Tr> <P> The system in Northern Ireland differed from that in England . The last eleven - plus was held in November 2008 . A provision in the Education Order (NI) 1997 states that "the Department may issue and revise guidance as it thinks appropriate for admission of pupils to grant - aided schools". Citing this on 21 January 2008, Northern Ireland's Education Minister Caitríona Ruane passed new guidelines regarding post-primary progression as regulation rather than as legislation . This avoided the need for the proposals to be passed by the Northern Ireland Assembly, where cross-party support for the changes did not exist . Some schools, parents and political parties object to the new legal framework . As a result, many post-primary schools are setting their own entrance examinations . </P> <P> The eleven - plus was a result of the major changes which took place in English and Welsh education in the years up to 1944 . In particular, the Hadow report of 1926 called for the division of primary and secondary education to take place on the cusp of adolescence at 11 or 12 . The implementation of this break by the Butler Act seemed to offer an ideal opportunity to implement streaming, since all children would be changing school anyway . Thus testing at eleven emerged largely as an historical accident, without other specific reasons for testing at that age . </P>

When was the 11 plus abolished in scotland