Hain pledges full implementation of education review

Secretary of State Peter Hain has today pledged the full implementation of Sir George Bain’s Strategic Review of Education, beginning immediately, and urged a returning devolved government to complete the task.

Speaking at Crumlin High School in Co Antrim, Mr Hain said: “A Shared Future for education is the only way to make Northern Ireland world class and the only way to improve standards and ensuring all pupils have the life chances that flow from an excellent education.

"Sir George’s Strategic Review is a roadmap to excellence for education in Northern Ireland; its implementation will ensure decent educational opportunities for all children in Northern Ireland, not just some.”

Announcing a new scheme to recognise sharing in schools, Mr Hain said that embedding cross-community sharing and collaboration is critical to the successful implementation of all the other Review recommendations.

He added that for too long, too many of Northern Ireland’s young people have not had the vital opportunity to mix with children from other communities during their vital, formative school years and that Integrated schools have demonstrated a particular and distinctive commitment to addressing this and that Crumlin High has chosen to transform to integrated status from September of this year, formalising an ethos that has been alive in the school for many years.

Mr Hain said: “Today I am announcing a new Shared Future Accreditation scheme for schools, a kite-mark for tolerance and sharing. The scheme will support schools in any sector that reach out beyond their immediate or traditional surroundings to extend a welcome to others.”

The scheme will recognise existing sharing and collaboration between and within schools, and encourage further work in all schools. It will bring with it financial and other support, and will be sensitive to the locations and surroundings of individual schools.

Turning to the planning and funding of schools, Mr Hain said: “There will be an immediate move towards area based planning, with the Education and Skills Authority playing a significant role in this work in its shadow form over the next year.

“This Government is making unprecedented levels of funding available for education. Tomorrow, Maria Eagle will announce record levels of funding for schools in Northern Ireland for next year. I want to give real power to school leaders, allowing them to ensure this money is used where it is most needed in their school to maximise its value for their pupils.”

Mr Hain also urged Ministers to be bold in the next stages of education reform once devolution is restored and added that the process of creating the Education and Skills Authority should be completed and the issues of funding should be dealt with.

He continued: “Serious consideration should be given to expanding dramatically the Specialist Schools programme; giving a school a specialism drives up an ethos of excellence and therefore results.

“They must give as much focus to vocational education as to traditional academic education, and they should investigate involving top companies in helping provide high quality vocational education for young people who know what they want to do and need help to do it.

“They should look at whether Northern Ireland could benefit from pupils taking the International Baccalaureate as an alternative to GCSEs and A Levels.

“Perhaps most important, the local politicians should work in partnership, across different traditions and entrenched opinions to take forward the method of post primary transfer. They should consider whether 11 is really the sensible age to force young people to make decisions, and if 14 is not a more reasonable point for such judgements.”

Mr Hain concluded: “Much significant work has taken place over the last 18 months to improve Northern Ireland’s education system. The returning Assembly and Executive must rise to the challenge of completing the task of making the education system – and Northern Ireland itself – world class.”

(EF)