A statement on the Education Bill by NI Conservatives’ education spokesperson, Mae Burke MBE.
“Northern Ireland has just experienced yet another example of fuzzy logic, or perhaps pure hypocrisy, from the Executive, after the DUP used a device known as a ‘petition of concern’ to block representation of the integrated sector on the planned single education body.”
“In this community, people of both main religious persuasions work together and go to university together and yet the DUP wants to keep compulsory education during the formative years segregated. Indeed it’s prepared to abuse a parliamentary device, which is supposed to protect minorities, in order to entrench segregation.”
“How can Northern Ireland move on when some of our leaders are so insecure and obsessed with self-interest and votes that they are unwilling to embrace the wider picture? I would appeal to the Executive to stop tinkering with shared education and help the integrated movement to grow as both schools and parents want.”