In 2004 the NI minister for education and employment, Jane Kennedy, announced that the 11+ transfer test was to be abolished.

There followed a backlash from grammar schools and parents and two consortia of schools have emerged:

  • Association for Quality Education (AQE), representing the state grammars; and
  • Post Primary Transfer Consortium (PPTC), representing the CCMS schools

The AQE test is written and marked by AQE Ltd in Belfast. The PPTC test is set and marked by GL assessment Ltd in England. In 2023 the dual tests were finally replaced by a single test run by SEAG, a new consortium which included most of the schools from the previous groups. AQE and PPTC no longer exist.

The SEAG exam covers a curriculum broadly mirroring the NI primary curriculum.