Debate contribution: Integrated Education: Fresh Start Funding for Capital Projects

Debate contribution by Mr Paul Givan on 12 March 2024.

MLA

Mr Paul Givan

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

12 March 2024

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Integrated Education: Fresh Start Funding for Capital Projects

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4267127

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I welcome the opportunity to respond to today's motion. First, let me begin by paying tribute to integrated schools right across Northern Ireland. They play an important role in the wider mix of schools and sectors in Northern Ireland. I am sure that colleagues will join me in extending that tribute to all our schools, which do a fantastic job of educating children and young people, often in very difficult circumstances. Since taking up office last month, I have been out visiting schools of all types from all sectors right across Northern Ireland, and I have witnessed the wonderful work that they do. I have enjoyed meeting the staff, the governors, the parents and, above all, the children. Those visits have cemented my view that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to delivering a high-quality education system. Education in Northern Ireland is based on the key and guiding principle, entrenched in our law, that children are educated, as far as possible, in accordance with the wishes of their parents. Mrs Dodds made that point. That is the basis on which our education system was founded — parental choice and plurality of options — and it is a cornerstone that I, as Education Minister, will defend and support in Northern Ireland.

I will.

If you look back over the past number of years, you will see that the development proposals that came forward for the Irish-medium sector were approved and that temporary variations in the integrated sector were approved. There has been investment in the integrated and the Irish-medium sectors. It is my Department's job and my job as Minister to support that and to do so for all our sectors. I have said that I will do it, and I will discharge faithfully all the various obligations upon me.

Let me make some progress. I believe that diversity and choice are a strength, not a weakness, of our education system. Every child, every school and every sector are important and valued in our education system, and they all have key roles in building a reconciled and shared society. Over the past two decades, society has been transformed. We have witnessed changes that most of us would have had difficulty imagining possible not so long ago. Continuing the journey to building a shared society is a key priority for the Executive. I believe that integrated education, which provides opportunities for children and young people from different community backgrounds to learn together, has an important role to play in that process. The number of pupils accessing integrated education continues to grow. More than 27,000 pupils in Northern Ireland are now enrolled in 71 integrated schools. That is more than 6,000 additional places in the past 10 years. It is worth noting at this point that there are integrated schools that are oversubscribed and there are those that are undersubscribed. That is reflected in different sectors right across Northern Ireland. As for first preferences at primary-school level, 98% of those who express a preference for integrated schools are accommodated. Therefore, it is clear that we are responding to demand. I take seriously my Department's statutory duty to encourage, facilitate and support integrated education. We will make it our aim to meet demand for integrated education, encouraging and supporting a growing network of sustainable integrated schools that provide high-quality education. I note that 33 of the 71 integrated schools are controlled integrated schools. They form part of the wider controlled sector, which is the largest sector in Northern Ireland. Those schools are open to all, welcoming children and young people of all faiths and none. They are inclusive, reflective of and embedded in the communities that they serve. However, we live in a rapidly changing world, and there is not a single or simplistic answer to building a transformed and reconciled society. In that area, as in so many others, there are no magic wands.

While integrated schools will be an important part of our long-term progress, so will other schools and sectors. Pitting one school sector against another or elevating one school sector above all others is not the answer to society's ills. Rather, we must focus on building a truly high-quality school system in which all our children and young people can flourish, regardless of who they are, where they come from or which school they attend. Many schools in Northern Ireland, from all sectors, now educate children and young people from diverse religious, ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and I welcome that. Schools have become adept at addressing community relations and diversity. Every school delivers the statutory curriculum, including the learning areas of personal development and mutual understanding, local and global citizenship and learning for life and work. Those were developed specifically to enable young people to learn about themselves and others and to develop tolerance, respect and open-mindedness through understanding similarities and respecting differences between people in the local community and beyond. The curriculum is designed explicitly to help children and young people to develop as responsible citizens who show respect for others, understand different beliefs and cultures and develop informed, ethical views of complex issues. I am mindful that, over the past number of years, shared education has, with much success, addressed the legacy of separation and division in our society. It provides a model for collaborative working that takes account of difference and celebrates the wide range of identities and diversity that exists in Northern Ireland. A huge body of internationally recognised research highlights the impact of sustained regular contact through shared education as a mechanism for promoting reconciliation and driving school improvement. Shared education has a wide range of educational benefits and opportunities for learners to access a wide range of subjects, increase specialist teaching and facilitate the sharing of ideas and good practice between schools. Two weeks ago, I was at the opening of the Limavady shared education campus, the very first campus of that type to open in Northern Ireland. That is two schools, one controlled and one Catholic maintained, both strong in their own ethos and identity, coming together on one campus as one community, creating and enriching educational experience. Before I conclude, I want to reflect on the removal of the Fresh Start funding by the UK Government. That funding was long promised to develop and support both shared and integrated education through providing much-needed facilities. Nine integrated schools and eight schools involved in shared education campuses at Strule and Brookeborough have been impacted by the removal of that funding. Therefore, it is regrettable, though predictable, that the motion as originally drafted refers only to integrated education and does not recognise the impact on the children, schools and communities that were promised investment in shared education campuses. The motion is exclusive; it is not inclusive. It excludes eight schools that were part of the Fresh Start funding. There is a challenge for the Alliance Party in how it approaches education. As Minister of Education, I have made it clear that I will support all sectors. The Alliance Party has tabled a motion that is exclusive to one sector and does not recognise that the Fresh Start money included eight other schools as part of that funding model. The challenge to the Alliance Party is this: why was the motion, which is exclusive, does not treat others with equitability and is not fair to others, tabled? That is a question for them to answer. There is an amendment, which my party will support, that addresses that and provides an inclusive option that is fair and equitable. I hope that it will be supported. It corrects what, I hope, was an error on the part of the Alliance Party. If it was not a mistake, that speaks volumes for the Alliance position when it comes to how it will deal with education.

Yes, Mr Carroll. I promised that I would give way.

I am always happy to meet MLAs and have agreed to do that, because I have said that I will support all sectors, unlike Mr Carroll, who said that our education system was built on sectarianism. I ask Mr Carroll and the Alliance Party what message they are sending out to the controlled sector and the maintained sector. Ms Nicholl said, I quote, that shared education is not transformative. What an insult to those in our controlled and maintained sectors who do incredible work to support reconciliation. They meet regularly and provide opportunities for children and young people on a shared basis. The Alliance Party really needs to reflect on its approach and attitude to education.

The Member for Fermanagh and South Tyrone makes a powerful point in advocating for her constituency and the benefits of shared education. The work that I have witnessed in my constituency and through my work as Minister of Education across the length and breadth of this country shows that there are schools that work across all sectoral boundaries. That is how we will create a truly shared society. It will not be achieved by trying to create a hierarchy of sectors, where some are deemed to be better than others. That is the road to division. It is not what I want, and I do not believe that it is what other Members outside the Alliance Party want. Let us move forward on the basis that I have outlined and represent all sectors in Northern Ireland. As is noted in the motion, I have written to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. I did so in the strongest terms, to highlight the importance of the Fresh Start programme and to ask him to honour the funding for those projects. Unfortunately, he has responded to advise that there will be no funding beyond the current financial package, and that is, I know, deeply disappointing news for everybody concerned. I have, however, taken the action of placing the nine integrated projects and the Brookeborough campus into my Department's major capital works programme, and they will continue to progress in planning and design. I have also submitted high-priority bids for every project to the Department of Finance as part of the Budget process. I ask every party in the Executive to support those bids, to remember the commitments given in the Assembly when it comes to Budget decisions, to support me to support those schools and to allocate sufficient capital budget to the education sector to allow those projects to proceed. The large and unprecedented growth in the number of children with complex special educational needs has placed unsustainable pressure on my Department's capital budget and overtaken all previous planning assumptions, yet not a single additional pound of capital funding has been provided to my Department for additional special needs placements. Now that Fresh Start funding has been removed, it is not a sustainable situation. I stand willing and committed to the delivery of the projects, but I ask Members and parties not to call for funding for those schools in the Assembly and then fail to support me at the Executive table, as that is where the key decisions will be taken. Across my Department's capital programmes, in every constituency and in every school sector, there is a wide range of much-needed investment projects that urgently need to be delivered. Today, let us commit to providing sustained and increased levels of capital investment to the education sector to prevent our children from being left behind in damp, mouldy classrooms in facilities from a previous century.

1,915 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 09:48 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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