- Northern Ireland Secretary announces new funding package to
support greater integration in education in Northern Ireland.
- Funds to raise awareness of and support the transformation
process for schools.
- Builds on Northern Ireland Office’s work to support
reconciliation and build a shared and integrated society.
Secretary of State, Rt Hon MP has made the £1.9m funding
announcement during a visit to Lough View Integrated Primary
School.
The funding will help support schools through the transformation
process as they work towards integrated status.
The £1.9m will go to the Integrated Education Fund (IEF) and the
Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education (NICIE), which
work to enable a greater number of children from different
community backgrounds to be educated together. NICIE offers
advice and support to parents and schools in the ballot process
which sees parents vote on where to transform to an integrated
school. The IEF raises awareness of the transformation process
and the merits of integrated education.
The Secretary of State today (Wednesday 6 July) visited Lough
View Integrated Primary, where he met its Principal, Sean
Spillane and discussed the school’s work to provide a high
quality education to children in an integrated setting.
At the school, he discussed how, as highlighted by the Belfast
(Good Friday) Agreement, greater integration in education is an
essential aspect of the reconciliation process and the promotion
of a culture of tolerance at every level of society.
Research clearly demonstrates the positive social attitudes
instilled by increased integration in education. Schools of all
types have been successful in delivering greater integration and
instilling the values of acceptance and cooperation that they
carry with them into later life, helping to create a more
inclusive society.
The Secretary of State, Rt Hon MP, said:
Seeing greater integration of education across Northern Ireland
is an absolute priority for me.
When a school becomes integrated, children learn, grow and build
communities together. Parents get to know each other, and long
term friendships develop. This is an essential aspect of the
reconciliation process.
My hope is that integration will soon become the norm and not the
exception in schools across Northern Ireland. The work done by
the IEF and NICIE is essential in helping Northern Ireland’s
children to grow up in a truly shared society.
Tina Merron, Chief Executive of the Integrated Education
Fund said:
The Integrated Education Fund is delighted with today’s
announcement by the Secretary of State. Integrated Education is a
core commitment of the Good Friday Agreement and we remember that
the British Government is a co-guarantor of that Agreement.
This is an enormous boost to our charitable organisation as we
seek to empower and support parents, schools and local
communities who want to see more Integrated schooling.
In the past few years 14 schools across Northern Ireland have
held a democratic ballot of their parents in favour of Integrated
status and the IEF and Northern Ireland Council for Integrated
Education are now working to support more schools than ever
before.
Roisin Marshall, the Chief Executive Officer of the
Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education said:
The Council for Integrated Education empowers school communities
to deliberately and intentionally attract children, young people
and the adults, who identify as coming from both sides of our
divided society as well as those from other religions and
cultural backgrounds.
This funding will enable NICIE to offer more dedicated support to
those school communities who wish to explore, develop and embed
their Integrated ethos. We are very grateful for this
additional support to help to meet the increase in parental
demand for Integrated Education.
ENDS
Notes to editors
- The Integrated Education Fund (IEF) will receive £1,465,000
and the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education (NICIE)
will receive £435,000 over the next 2.5 Financial Years (2022 -
2025).
