Education
It was the late 19th century that saw the development of formal education in Lurgan and a significant move away from the less organised hedge schools of before.
Today, schools in Lurgan operate under the Dickson Plan, a transfer system in north Armagh that allows pupils at age 11 the option of taking the Eleven Plus exam to enter grammar schools, with pupils in comprehensive junior high schools being sorted into grammar and non-grammar streams. Pupils can get promoted to or demoted from the grammar stream during their time in those schools depending on the development of their academic performance, and at age 14 can take subject-based exams across the syllabus to qualify for entry into a dedicated grammar school to pursue GCSEs and A-levels.
As is common in Northern Ireland, most of the schools in Lurgan are attended mainly by children from one or other of the two main religious blocs reflecting the existence of deep-seated sectarian and political divisions in society. Some schools are in the Catholic 'maintained' sector, i.e. maintained by the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools, and others are controlled directly by the state. Directly-controlled state schools generally have a predominantly Protestant intake.
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