Politics in Northern Ireland is caught in a “Groundhog Day of endless reports and no action”, according to Conservative Party spokesman, Frank Shivers. Mr Shivers made his comments after details from a new OFMDFM report into the effects of deprivation in schools were revealed.
“This document has not yet been published, but we’ve learned that it will say that Northern Ireland has a problem with underachievement and it is likely to highlight particular difficulties in working class Protestant areas”, Frank observed. “These problems have been self-evident for years and yet, rather than tackle the issues, the Executive prefers to commission an endless series of reports. Why hasn’t there been an effort to turn underachieving schools into academies, to have successful head-teachers mentor schools where there are problems and to offer excellence in both traditional academic and more vocational pathways?”
“Instead, the debate comes back persistently to ideological issues around selection and divisive attempts to demonise particular sectors of the education system. It’s a pattern which is replicated across government, whether you’re talking about delivering new infrastructure projects or getting to grips with segregation in social housing. We have an Executive which retreads the same hackneyed debates and produces endless paperwork, but gets very little done. To make an impact on educational underachievement we need action, not more reports and more arguments about academic selection.”