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Northern Ireland: Integrated Schools

My Lords, I am speaking in the debate today to support the excellent and hard work the noble Baroness, Lady Blood, does for integrated education in Northern Ireland. It seems so obvious to me that integrated education is the sensible way forward. Children learning, working and spending the day together, learning how each other lives is the surest way to bring tolerance, understanding and good sense to the people of Northern Ireland and encourage them to live together in amity. I shall be pursuing this theme tomorrow when we are again in Committee on the Education and Inspections Bill. I feel a bit of a fraud speaking on Northern Ireland education when I have visited none of the schools that are already integrated. That is not entirely my fault; the all-party group was planning a visit in June and my name was down to go. Alas, the plan fell through and no suitable date could be found before the Summer Recess. However, I hope that the plan will be reinstated in the autumn in the quieter times after the Queen’s Speech. The Commons tabled an Early Day Motion welcoming the decision of the integrated education fund in Northern Ireland to give financial support of more than £750,000 to establish integrated education in a number of areas, and noted that support for IE was a key theme of St Patrick’s week celebrations in the United States. We in this House have recently been discussing the miscellaneous provisions Bill, and I am glad to say we carried the vote to end selection in Northern Ireland. It was a heavy blow that the Government refused to fund the expansion of IE in Northern Ireland. It seems strange that the Government, so enthusiastic to give parents greater choice over the schools their children go to, did not on this occasion give them what they wanted. The Government talk about a shared future yet, when faced with people so committed to sharing their future that they are prepared to stake their children’s future on it, the Government leave them stranded and force the children into segregated schools against their parents’ wishes. The Minister, Angela Smith, gave as the main reason for the controversial decision that there were too many surplus places in the proposed areas, and the impact that a new school would have on local schools’ enrolment. That was hotly contested. Spare places in local segregated schools must not be allowed to veto parental choice where there is great demand and no local option. In recent months, five more schools have undergone successful transformation ballots, and there will be two new schools, so that from September this year there will be 64 integrated schools. Deborah Girvan, communications and lobbying manager for the integrated movement, said that even though demand for IE was at an all-time high, "““tough times are ahead. The Review of Public Administration along with the Shared Future policy, the demographic downturn, and cash strapped budgets, will test the mettle of us all””." She continued, however, that, "““the will and spirit of parents, a legacy started by the pioneering parents of Lagan 25 years ago, will give us the resolve and inspiration to fight on and challenge the status quo””." I very much hope that she is right. The best of luck to IE and I wish it very well.