Debate contribution: Tackling the Financial and Societal Impacts of Division

Debate contribution by Mrs Michelle Guy on 25 March 2025.

MLA

Mrs Michelle Guy

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

25 March 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Tackling the Financial and Societal Impacts of Division

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4866812

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I am pleased to speak on the motion, which, for me, is less about the cost of division and more about the opportunities in a united community. Nowhere better illustrates the possibilities than our education system. The challenges in education are huge, and we could spend the circa £800 million that the motion references in a heartbeat, but here are just three of the big-ticket items for which we could use that money. The first is a comprehensive early years and childcare strategy that is capable of tackling educational inequalities through early interventions and the expansion of the NI childcare subsidy scheme to include more families. Previously, the Minister cited an unsubstantiated figure of around £400 million for that, but, to give some context, the allocation for childcare in 2025-26 is just £50 million. The Minister's recently published SEN reform agenda and delivery plan is costed at £570 million, but £27 million has been allocated to it. To address our school estate, £100 million of capital investment on top of the current capital budget is needed. Those are ridiculous figures that are made all the more ridiculous when they are set in the context of an education system that has, in a nutshell, too many sectors, too much bureaucracy, too many schools and declining pupil numbers.

I make the following point crystal clear: in Northern Ireland, we have fabulous schools staffed by incredible and dedicated individuals. It is the system in which those schools operate that must evolve and change, if it is to meet the needs of our children and young people. The evidence is clear: our education system is on a collision course with a financial and demographic reality that it must reorientate to address. Last October, the Education Committee received a written briefing from officials that forecast a funding gap of over £1 billion by 2027-28. Data published this month by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) suggests that there will be more pensioners than schoolchildren in Northern Ireland by 2030. Imagine our entire education system as an old building: beautiful and full of character, tradition and memories that have been formed over many years but structurally unsound. When an engineer says that the building is not fit for purpose, a responsible owner listens. It really matters when that building — that system — is spending your money. Is it acceptable at all to decide to redecorate rather than invest in structural improvements? No, it is not, but the current keyholder of our education system is doing just that. He is launching new report after new report with which we could literally paper the walls, creating more, not less, bureaucracy and actively stifling the expansion of integrated education while asking for more public money without showing any appetite to transform our education system. That is an abdication of responsibility that does not serve our learners. The pertinent question, which I do not have time to address today, is this: who does the situation serve? The independent review of education offered us solutions that are intended to be implemented as a holistic approach, not as an à la carte menu: reconfigure the network of schools, simplify management and prioritise investment. The independent review of education also did modelling that suggested the potential to create 177 new or reconfigured jointly managed community schools and sixth forms with expanded numbers of learners from different communities attending the same school and learning together. That last point, learning together, is absolutely relevant to a discussion about the cost of division in relation to education. With the troubled past that we have, the cost to us as a society of keeping our kids apart through the school system rather than moving towards an integrated model is, frankly, really sad. Despite the Integrated Education Act having been passed three years ago with clear duties to encourage, facilitate and support integrated education, today it is still very much a grassroots movement. The Committee recently had a really positive and myth-busting session on integrated education. Integrated education was described not as a sector but as a bridge between the system that we have now and a sustainable system capable not only of delivering great education but of building reconciliation. Integrated education, as stated expressly in the Act, is about more than religious mixing between Protestants and Catholics. It is about open, inclusive learning environments that embrace, through governance structures and a deliberate ethos, those from different backgrounds, be they cultural, faith, socio-economic or SEN. It is not about erasing or disparaging the ethos of other schools but about mindfully and deliberately finding ways to include and respect them in a sustainable school model. It offers an opportunity for us, and we should take it.

790 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:08 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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