Catholic Leader Hits Back Over Schooling

A senior figure in the Catholic Church has criticised last weekend's call by the NI First Minister Peter Robinson to make the majority of educational establishments inclusive and non-denominational.

The church's leader in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady (pictured) was speaking after the DUP leader described segregated education for school pupils in Northern Ireland as a "benign form of apartheid".

Mr Robinson's speech sparking a fierce debate among educators, politicians and church leaders but drew applause from the integrated schools sector.

The Cardinal said: "Recent suggestions that schools in Northern Ireland should be forced into one single state system are a stark warning to all those who respect diversity and the rights of parents.

"It seems strange that people in Northern Ireland are being told that they should accept a lower standard of rights and freedoms than they would have if they lived in Britain, Scotland or the south of Ireland," he said, insisting that the comments had "set back" discussions on the future of education, north and south and had created "distrust and suspicion".

But, in comments earlier this week, Mr Robinson labelled the response from the Catholic sector to his comments as "hysteria".

Mr Robinson's speech was also criticised by the Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein who warned Peter Robinson about taking on the Catholic Church over integrated education.

After Mr Robinson recommended a commission be set up to examine a way of bringing about integrated education across the region, Martin McGuinness said that taking on what Mr Robinson called vested interests in education was a "collision course which will lead us into a total and absolute mess".

In counterpoint, Noreen Campbell from the NI Council for Integrated Education said Mr Robinson's speech was a significant contribution to the debate on the future of education in Northern Ireland.

"I welcome Peter Robinson's intervention. I welcome the debate."

The Alliance Education Spokesperson Trevor Lunn has also said he is encouraged that Peter Robinson can see the the need to address segregation in our schools system and has said the best way to do this is through having more shared and integrated education

Stormont MLA Trevor Lunn said: "I am glad Peter Robinson can see that there is apartheid in our education system but it's far from benign. Division is totally wrong and it hinders us from creating a united community.

"It would be shameful if the cost of division was not addressed quickly, and the current budgetary challenges should focus people's minds even more on this.

"Alliance makes ending segregation our number one priority and I am glad that others like Peter Robinson are recognising this massive drain on our resources. It's imperative that we now see swift action to tackle division in our education system."

The DUP MLA Alastair Ross has since said that Cardinal Brady should welcome the debate about the future of education and recognise the progress in Northern Ireland which allows a debate about bringing down the barriers in education.

"We cannot expect to end the division in our society if we continue to separate our children on their first day at school.

"Why would any society want to perpetuate and sustain division? We would not allow and even consider such a system at university level so therefore we should take the next decade to reconsider our approach," he said.

Referring to his party leader's weekend speech, he continued: "This was not a speech arguing for the withdrawal of rights for faith-based schools rather it was a speech setting out the need to deal with segregation amongst our children."

See: End NI's RC Schools, Says Robinson

(BMcC/GK)