Sir, – Is integrated education in Northern Ireland simply a pipe-dream? Newton Emerson's column last Thursday would certainly make readers think so ("North needs new policy on integrated education",Opinion & Analysis, April 1st).
Only 7 per cent of Northern Ireland’s children are educated in integrated schools and the present rate of growth is no more than one new integrated school a year.
I came to Northern Ireland in 1967 to teach in a model integrated comprehensive school in Fivemiletown, Co Tyrone. Unfortunately the integrated nature of that school was lost during the Troubles.
During the 1980s and 1990s, the hopes of many were raised with the establishment of the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education. Thanks to the hard work and commitment of enthusiastic members of the public from all sections of society and all religions, integrated schools were opened in both the primary and secondary sectors.
With the passage of the Belfast Agreement, a key ingredient to the success of the “new” Northern Ireland was seen, by some, to be the growth and development of integrated education.
As we stagger from one crisis to another, with little real optimism about the future, it seems that our failure to expand the integrated sector has been at a very considerable cost.
Seventy per cent of the public, according to opinion polls, support integrated education, yet our political parties have failed miserably to advance effectively a cause that most of us believe in.
Squabbles over selection (the 11-plus), separate training colleges, the curriculum and shared schools have served only to distract from the one reform that might broaden attitudes and help to create a more inclusive society for all.
Or is the “new Northern Ireland/Ireland”, which we looked forward to after acceptance of the Belfast Agreement, also a pipe-dream? – Yours, etc,
DAVID GRIFFIN,
Magherally,
Banbridge,
Co Down.