NI Conservatives’ spokesman, Mark Brotherston, has accused the education minister of “presiding over chaos in the education system and discrimination against some of our most successful schools”.
“Another term has started with uncertainty and chaos for Northern Ireland’s schools at Stormont”, Mark stated. “With John O’Dowd presiding over education, schools are penalised for being successful and doing the right things, while his party wages an ideological campaign against the grammar sector and offers precious little support for integrated education.”
“Principals from four of Northern Ireland’s best schools met on Monday to express concern about plans to scrap their sector. Meanwhile, many integrated schools are bursting at the seams, yet the minister has turned down several schemes to expand capacity where there is huge demand from parents.”
“Certainly, academic underachievement should be addressed wherever it exists. However the education minister should also be backing all of Northern Ireland’s schools and he certainly shouldn’t be penalising schools which are doing well, whether by attacking their budgets, preventing them from expanding or attempting to turn them into comprehensives, against the wishes of parents, teachers and pupils.”
“Sinn Féin’s tenure at the department of education has been disastrous so far. The party would do well to start showing a genuine concern for the future of our young people, rather than attacking schools in sectors it doesn’t like, creating political arguments for the sake of it and sustaining the sectarian divisions on which the party thrives.”