Support for integrated education is growing with 71% believing it should be the ‘main model’ for Northern Ireland’s education system, a poll shows.
The LucidTalk survey, which spoke to 2,000 people, found a five per cent rise from 2013 in the number of people who believe local children should be education together.
The poll also found a widely held belief that politicians and the churches are part of the reason why integrated education is not more widespread.
LucidTalk carried out thre poll ‘on behalf’ of the Integrated Education Fund (IEF) who say the findings come as the NI Executive prepares to launch an Independent Review of the Northern Ireland education system as part of the New Decade, New Approach agreement reached in January 2020.
The agreement described the NI education system in its current form as ‘unsustainable’ and pledged to examine the prospects of moving to a single system of education.
The ‘attitudinal report’ also found that 59% of DUP voters and 72% of Sinn Fein voters believe NI children should be educated together.
It also concluded that 79% of people here agree that ‘all schools, regardless of management type, should aim to have a religious and cultural mix of its pupils, teachers and governors’.
The IEF says that although a clear majority of NI voters want to move in the direction of an integrated education system, new integrated schools still have to be either set up by parents or parents have to vote democratically to change the status of an existing school.
They say there are currently 68 formally integrated schools and colleges, which represent 7.5% of Northern Ireland’s educational settings, educating around 25,000 children. But there is still no government plan for integrated education and its growth is still down to determined campaigners and pioneering parents.
The findings from the LucidTalk survey are published more than 23 years after a Good Friday agreement pledge promised “to facilitate and encourage integrated education” as an element in the process of reconciliation, the IEF says.
In a multiple choice question, Sixty-four percent of those surveyed attribute the slow growth in integrating NI pupils to NI political parties and NI politicians, with the influence of the churches also being ranked highly (64%) as a contributing factor.
In 2021 there have been four schools that have transformed to integrated status including the first ever Catholic primary school (Seaview Primary School in Glenarm). It joins Brefne Nursery in North Belfast, Carrickfergus Central Primary School and Harding Memorial Primary School in East Belfast in gaining recent Ministerial approval for integrated status. A further two more schools, Glengormley High and Bangor Central Nursery School are awaiting a Ministerial decision.
Speaking about the findings of the poll, Jill Caskey, Parental Engagement Campaign Manager, IEF said: “The findings in this survey highlight the demand for integrated education in Northern Ireland and they should prompt our Executive to actively promote a fully integrated education system for the benefit of our entire society. It should also help inform the new Independent Review of the NI Education system in terms of public opinion on this crucial aspect of our society.
“Although the level of integrated education has continued to grow since the Good Friday Agreement, it is nowhere near the rate it needs to be in order to reflect the demand from parents for more integration.
“There is no government plan for developing more integrated schooling with growth solely dependent on parents, schools and campaigners.
“We are going into an era in NI needs an education system fit for the 21st Century which is fully inclusive. We need to see a dedicated governmental plan to accommodate the demands of our parents and children.”
