Copyright bbc
The new centre will provide weekly small group tuition in English, Maths and reasoning to prepare children for the Schools' Entrance Assessment Group (SEAG) tests. More than 60 post-primary schools across Northern Ireland use the test to decide which pupils to admit into year eight. A paper by Queen's University in 2022 claimed that academic selection perpetuated division in wider society in Northern Ireland and "disadvantages the already most disadvantaged". Foodstock founder Paul Doherty said it will "tackle the longer impacts of poverty through education" and will "empower people to better their lives". "A lot of people say because of financial difficulties they cannot afford additional tuition and they are pulling their child out of the transfer test," he said. "We talk about removing barriers when it comes to hunger through breakfast programmes - this is removing other barriers when it comes to education".
