NI Conservatives spokeswoman, Lesley Macaulay, has described the Ministerial Advisory Group’s report into shared education as “bitterly disappointing”.
“This was an opportunity to draft a practical plan to get our children learning together”, Lesley noted. “Yet the document commissioned by John O’Dowd is vague, evasive and frankly struggles to stay on topic.”
“The concept of shared education should be about satisfying an overwhelming demand from parents to move away from schools which segregate children on the basis of their religion. Instead, this report uses it as yet another avenue to attack academic selection, which might suit the agenda of a Sinn Féin minister who is obsessed with abolishing grammar schools, but will do nothing to start breaking down religious segregation.”
“It is telling that integrated education, a sector which is hugely popular, and the only model which is providing genuinely shared education already, is swept aside almost dismissively by the Advisory Group. Yet many integrated schools cannot grow quickly enough to satisfy the demand from parents and are being prevented from doing so by the minister’s policies.”
“In the 152 pages of this document there is nothing resembling a clear plan to get more schools from the controlled and maintained sectors working together, and more children from Protestant and Catholic backgrounds learning together. The minister will be delighted, because the report is a licence to shamble on as things are. For anyone with a genuine interest in ending segregated education it is a bitter, bitter disappointment.”