Integrated Education (Hansard, 10 November 1988)

§ 2. Mr. Matthew Taylor
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on the progress made in the development of integrated education and the education for mutual understanding project over the past six months.

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Dr. Brian Mawhinney)
Within the past six months three integrated schools have been granted maintained status and a new integrated school has been opened and provisionally registered as an independent school.
The planned education reforms in Northern Ireland will include a range of significant new measures specifically designed to encourage the development of integrated education.
On education for mutual understanding, a new guideline was published on 20 October and is being distributed to all schools. Under the education reforms, EMU will become a compulsory cross-curricular theme.

§ Mr. Taylor
Will the Minister outline how he supports and funds the community relations in schools programme and the provisions that he will make for the future funding and support, not only that programme, but of other reconciliation projects?

§ Dr. Mawhinney
The budget for promoting cross-community contact in schools in a variety of ways, including the ones to which I have referred, and in the community; has risen sharply in the past couple of years. I hope and expect that that trend will continue.

§ Mr. Favell
What has been the reaction of the churches to my hon. Friend's brave initiative? Do they recognise that the way to promote understanding and harmony is to bring the children of Northern Ireland together, rather than to promulgate a form of education apartheid?

§ Dr. Mawhinney
It is not our wish to introduce measures that will offend against the theology or conscience of anyone in the Province, but we do not believe that such a charge could be laid against the plans for integrated education—provided that that is what the parents want for their children. So far we have been encouraged by the responses of the churches to this new and significant initiative.

§ Mr. Kilfedder
No matter what opposition may come from the churches, and despite any stalling, will the Minister press ahead relentlessly to purge religious apartheid from the schools in Northern Ireland? I congratulate the Minister on what he has already announced, but he should not restrict himself to those measures. He should ensure that we also expunge sectarianism from the teacher training colleges in Northern Ireland.

§ Dr. Mawhinney
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his kind words and for his many years of strong support for integrated education in the Province. I assure him that his commitment to giving parents choice through integrated education is no greater than mine. We are determined to see that option made available to all parents in Northern Ireland.

§ Mr. Beggs
Does the Minister acknowledge that, prior to this initiative, there was already a high level of integrated education in certain sectors in Northern Ireland? Will he undertake to publish the extent to which children were already being educated together irrespective of their religious background? Will he also acknowledge that the state schools in Northern Ireland are already available to be used as centres for integrated education?

§ Dr. Mawhinney
No, I do not accept that in the past there were strong integrated education facilities in the Province. Of course the hon. Gentleman is absolutely right in saying that, at a number of schools, pupils from both sides of the community are educated together, but he knows that such schools represent a small minority.
I agree with the hon. Gentleman that, in law, all schools in Northern Ireland are open to any pupil of any or no religious faith. I look to the hon. Gentleman and his colleagues for support in giving parents the choice and the right to choose, which demonstrably so many parents in the Province want.