No apology from Bishop Donal McKeown over ‘highly defamatory’ AQE comments

A Catholic bishop accused of making “highly defamatory” comments in relation the AQE school transfer test has indicated he is not minded to apologise.

Bishop Donal McKeown angered the privately-run exams body when he criticised plans to press ahead with a single test on February 27 during a coronavirus pandemic – claiming business interests were a “major element” behind the AQE decision.

In an interview on BBC NI’s Sunday Politics programme, Bishop McKeown said: “When business becomes a major element in educational decisions I think, perhaps, we’ve lost the point,” he said.

Responding to Bishop McKeown’s comments, the AQE directors said his statement “completely lacked accuracy and was pejorative in tone”.

The exams body said: “AQE Limited does not engage in ‘business’, in the normally accepted meaning of that word. It does not carry on its activities with a view to making a profit.

“The members of its Board of Directors are not remunerated and perform their roles voluntarily. The fees which it charges to parents do not cover the costs which AQE Limited incurs in producing and administering the Common Entrance Assessment”.

AQE described the Bishop’s comments “highly defamatory” to AQE, its directors and officers, “carrying, as it does, the clear innuendo that such persons are acting from motives of pure self-interest.”

AQE added: “In light thereof AQE Limited would call upon the Bishop to retract the statement which he made on 10 January 2021 and to issue an appropriate apology”.

When asked by the News Letter if he was planning to respond to the AQE’s call for an apology, Bishop McKeown said: “I simply raised an issue. And I leave it for others to discuss.”

READ: AQE test ‘only fair way’ to give children a choice of school

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