That was the warning on education from Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Owen Paterson during a fact-finding visit to East Antrim on Thursday.
Mr Paterson said: "It is very easy to say you are not going to select but you can very easily replace that with selection by money. Either by: some schools will declare UDI or other schools will take pupils on the basis of the value of houses round about.
"It is very easy just to say you'll get rid of selection', you could replace it with something much worse. You've got schools producing absolutely top class students. My son goes to Trinity, Dublin, and some of his best friends have come down from here. I met some girls last week with absolutely fantastic qualifications, came out of Ulster's education system."
Referring to visiting companies at this week's US/NI Investment conference, he added: "They will be looking for highly skilled people, who may not be academic. So that's where we should be looking. We should be making sure that when those American companies, Canadian companies come over that we've got skilled people."
Accompanied by MP for the area Sammy Wilson, Mr Paterson visited Carrick waterfront and met with representatives from the Community Forum before having lunch with the Deputy Mayor, Carrick's senior police officer and a number of elected representatives. Earlier he toured Monkstown Community School, which he described as "a very good school", while his itinerary for the afternoon in Larne included the FG Wilson plant and Larne Grammar School.
"As a rule I try to come to Northern Ireland every week. Everytime I come here, I talk to people and I just get a different angle on what's going on. Sammy has kindly set up this visit today. My request is to show me round, show me stuff and get me to meet people who I wouldn't meet on my own, which give me a feel for the place," he said.
In an interview with the TIMES, Mr Paterson stressed there is still a role for the Secretary of State despite the return of devolved government and he revealed he has been building links with key players in the peace process.
"Obviously there is further devolution to go - criminal justice, policing, is on the way. But I still feel even after that is devolved I think there is a role because everything went terribly wrong before when Ulster was not represented in the Cabinet. And I think the involvement of the Republic has been absoultely vital. I was in Dublin for three days last week and for instance, I have already been to America twice myself. Involvement of America has been absolutely vital."
He singled out the economy for special mention after the battering it took during the Troubles.
"Currently there is an eight billion subvention from the British taxpayer over and above what's raised in taxations; 71 per cent of effectively GDP is state activity; 29 per cent of people work for the state. There has to be a concerted, I would suggest a 25 year programme, working that down and getting the private sector up as they did successfully in the South, which was a basket case in the late 1970s and now it's a tremendous example.
"So I think there is a role for someone to help represent Ulster at the heart of government in London and at the highest level in Dublin and Washintgon and New York and Boston, etc."
Whilst in East Antrim he may just have taken a step closer to the position as mainland voters strengthened the Tory grip on local government - including electing Boris Johnson Mayor of London - and in the process improved the party's prospects for the next Westminster election.
Commenting before the results were known, he said: "Given the current state of the polls I wouldn't see any general election very soon. The Prime Minister doesn't have to go until 2010. We've made a lot of progress but I would be cautious and say we've got a lot more progress to make."
And punters looking for a further sign of Mr Paterson's chances of becoming the next Conservative Secretary of State, might be tempted to follow his example: "Ireland, North and South, has a great tradition of interest in horses. So I had a great day at Punchestown last week, where a horse called Scotsirish, trained by Willie Mullins, obliged at 9-1!"