We cannot afford to continue as we are – in terms of building a united community, getting the best out of our pupils and in pure financial terms.” claimed Mark Brotherston NI Conservative spokesperson.
“We continue to support grammar schools and academic selection in Northern Ireland, however, calls from people based in Northern Ireland for the new Education Secretary to introduce new grammars in England are a distraction.
”We need to use the challenges presented by falling school numbers and the existence of too many schools to radically promote the education of all our children together in schools that contain children from our entire community not simply one section of it.”
Mr Brotherston said that the Northern Ireland Executive’s financial situation was ‘deteriorating rapidly’ due to the inability of the parties to take tough decisions.
“The situation has been getting worse for a number of years and can only be addressed by radical action. We simply cannot afford to keep funding four separate education systems – state, Catholic, integrated and Irish language.”
‘The Department of Education estimate that there are approximately 85,000 empty desks in our system. We have too many schools with too much duplication. Whilst diversity is not necessarily a bad thing, it is very expensive. Moreover, many small schools owe their existence to generous small school allowances which distort the fairness of the system. Integrated education accounts for a very small proportion of enrolments. The current strategy of ‘shared education’ and ‘shared campuses’ is a step in the right direction, but is logistically complex and does not save on resources. ‘
NI Conservatives wish to see more emphasis on ‘transforming’ existing schools into integrated ones rather than the integrated sector operating as a distinct entity.