§ Mr. AltonTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what representations he has received about the relationships between integrated schools and segregated schools, the provision of integrated nursery education, and the provision of integrated special education; and if he will make a statement.
§ Dr. MawhinneyA number of views were received about the proposed management structures of controlled integrated schools and we have been able broadly to take these into account. This means that the legislation will continue to provide that in the case of a controlled integrated school which was formerly a controlled (non-grammar) school or a Catholic maintained school, its board of governors will include one seventh trustee representation and one seventh trasferor representation. Other controlled integrated schools will instead have two sevenths of their boards of governors appointed by the Department of Education.
On the question of integrated nursery and special education, nursery and special schools will be ineligible for formal integrated status since admissions are based on specialised criteria to which it would be quite inappropriate to add statutory requirements relating to the religion of pupils. On the other hand, it will be possible for an integrated school to have a nursery or special unit attached to it.