Dept Of Education Urged To Do More For Integrated Education

The Department of Education must do more to promote integrated education in Northern Ireland, a report has found.

In his final act before leaving office on Thursday 02 March, Minister for Education Peter Weir published the Integrating Education in Northern Ireland: Celebrating Inclusiveness and Fostering Innovation in our Schools.

The report makes a number of recommendations, including:

• That the Department of Education (DE) reviews the existing legal definition of 'integrated' education to ensure it is appropriate for the 21st century, particularly in light of Northern Ireland's changing demographic and increasing diversity.

• That DE brings forward legislation to place a duty on DE and the Education Authority (EA) and a power on all other Arms Length Bodies to encourage, facilitate and promote integrated education.

• That the new legislation should include a requirement to report to the Assembly at intervals of not more than two years on the implementation of the statutory duty to encourage, facilitate and promote integrated education.

• That DE should review the religious balance criteria for integrated schools to take greater account of our more diverse society and regional and local demographics, including the balance of the community in which a school is located.

• That further comparative research should be commissioned to assess the evidence for differing pupil outcomes in terms of tolerance and reconciliation across the different school sectors in Northern Ireland. This should also include the outcomes for those pupils involved in shared education.

The report was commissioned in January 2016 by then Education Minister John O'Dowd.

The full report can be read here.