The education minister, John O’Dowd, is “being hugely divisive” and “targeting schools and pupils for political reasons” with his new plans for school funding, according to NI Conservatives’ spokesman, Mark Brotherston.
“This is the type of political mind-set, which in other locations or times, was turned to grabbing land from white farmers in Zimbabwe or persecuting Kulaks after the Russian revolution”, Mark noted. “Instead, in this time and place, the Sinn Féin minister is running amok in Northern Ireland’s department of education, grabbing funds from the schools and pupils he does not approve of, attacking the grammar sector and hammering the parts of our education system which are doing well. At some point Sinn Féin ministers have got to move from ideology to responsibility.”
“It really is the most divisive and blatantly political approach to take to our schools. Sinn Féin has been in charge of the portfolio since 1999 and the truth is that it has done nothing effective to address underachievement in schools. Now, instead of getting to grips with the issues at hand, drawing together a committee of principals to explain what underachieving schools need, for instance, by examining best practice from those that are producing good results and working closely with each school and principal where there are problems, John O’Dowd is simply attempting to grab money from the majority of schools and encouraging division in society.”
“The Common Funding Formula is the bluntest of blunt instruments, using free schools meals as the indicator and I’m afraid that it also appears to be a completely cynical exercise. John O’Dowd should be looking at the amount of waste which takes place in his department and across the whole executive, in order to determine how all schools can get the funding they need. Look at the millions of pounds which were wasted on a failed Computer Assessment Scheme, or the continued spending on a stalled single education authority. Instead he prefers to set schools against others and attack the areas where he does see excellence.”
“That approach is letting down schools, it’s letting down children and it’s letting down the pupils who are currently underachieving. We need an education minister for all schools and for all children, rather than an education minister who uses his post as a party political tool to spread division.”