Furthermore, sponge cities have been

, but individual pupils results will not be published in Northern Ireland.In a statement, Givan said that the tests would be introduced in the 2025/26 school year for a three-year period and would stop Northern Ireland being an "outlier."

"Literacy and numeracy are the essential foundation of all education," he said."Northern Ireland is currently without any measures of how our system is performing in both these areas at primary school and Key Stage 3.""This is not acceptable and makes us an outlier internationally in being without basic performance data."

"This new approach is designed to provide a clear, evidence-based understanding of how well our pupils are developing essential knowledge and skills in reading, writing and mathematics and will provide an authoritative picture on our national educational performance.""The findings from the assessments will support curriculum development and teacher professional learning."

The new tests will be created and delivered by the Council for Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) with first taking place in March 2026.

Margaret McKeich turned 40 on the day her only child was found murdered on the banks of a river near Loch Lomond - but it was 27 years before she was able to face her daughter's killers in court.Since then, it seems the Iranian regime has been hiring criminal organisations to carry out kidnappings and killings in an attempt to avoid linking the attacks back to the regime.

But Matt Jukes, the UK's Head of Counter Terrorism Policing, says it is relatively easy for police to infiltrate criminal groups because they are not ideologically aligned with the Iranian regime.It is what he calls a "creeping penetration" by Iran, which the police are trying to disrupt.

Searches are continuing at a number of addresses after five men were arrested on Saturday over an alleged terror plot in the UK.Home Office minister Dan Jarvis said hundreds of officers were carrying out forensic investigations and collecting evidence at different sites across the country during a Commons statement on Tuesday.