§ Lord Kilclooneyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Which schools in Armagh city were consulted about the proposal to develop an integrated secondary school in Armagh; how many pupils at the Armagh College of Further Education (CFE) were enrolled for the A-level examination last year; what is the proportion of Roman Catholics to Protestants in the Armagh CFE; and whether the Armagh CFE was consulted about the proposed integrated college in Armagh. [HL341]
§ The Lord President of the Council (Baroness Amos)The proposal to establish a new integrated school in Armagh was published on 8 October 2003. This initiated a two-month consultation period for comments. While there is no statutory requirement for the education and library boards to consult individual schools regarding the establishment of new grant-maintained integrated schools, the Southern Education and Library Board also carried out its own consultation with the following schools in Armagh: City of Armagh High; St Brigid's High; St Catherine's College; St Patrick's Grammar; The Royal School; Saints and Scholars Integrated Primary. Armagh College of Further Education was not consulted by the board.
In the 2002–03 academic year there were 415 (of which 381 were full-time) enrolments' on A-level (AS and A2) programmes at the college.
An analysis of the community background within the college found: 50 per cent 'Roman Catholic', 38 per cent 'Protestant', 2 per cent 'other religion' and 10 per cent 'not stated or unknown'.
1 The figures quoted relate to a snapshot of enrolments at 1 November 2002.