Integrated Education Act An important first step

Kellie Armstrong MLA’s Integrated Education Act has placed the initiative on the Department of Education to encourage and facilitate the growth of integrated education in Northern Ireland.

The Act was not without its opponents, with the DUP and TUV attempting to use the petition of concern in the Assembly to block its passage. The Ulster Unionist Party additionally opposed the bill but refused to make use of the petition of concern, thus allowing its passage into an act.

Sinn Féin, Alliance, the SDLP, the Green Party, and People Before Profit all voted in favour, in spite of criticism from SDLP MLA Daniel McCrossan that the legislation “has a lot of problems.”

The Act defines integrated education as: “Education together, in an integrated school, of; (a) those of different cultures and religious beliefs and of none, including reasonable numbers of both Protestant and Roman Catholic children or young persons; (b) those who are experiencing socioeconomic deprivation and those who are not; and (c) those of different abilities.”

It further defines an integrated school as “a school which; (a) intentionally supports, protects, and advances an ethos of diversity, respect and understanding between those of different cultures and religious beliefs and of none, between those of different socio-economic backgrounds and between those of different abilities, and (b) has acquired: (1) grant-maintained integrated status; or (2) controlled integrated status under the Education Reform Order”.

The Act places an onus on the Education Authority (EA) to encourage and facilitate, “in line with the powers conferred upon it”, the transition for schools into an integrated or ‘shared education’ model.

Schools undergoing the ballot initiative process:

• Straid Primary School, near

Ballyclare • St Anne’s Primary School,

Donaghadee • Sion Mills Primary School • Gillygooley Primary School,

Omagh • St Eugene’s Primary School,

Strabane • St Eugene’s Primary School, Tircur,

Omagh • Magherafelt Nursery School • Lurgan Model Primary School

“My hope is that integration will soon become the norm and not the exception in schools across Northern Ireland. The work done by the IEF and NICIE is essential in helping Northern Ireland’s children to grow up in a truly shared society.”

Former Secretary of State Brandon Lewis MP

The transition process

Section 8 of the Act stipulates that education bodies “must consider” integrated education when planning the establishment of a new school.

This process requires a consultation with teachers, governors, pupils, families, and sectoral and community bodies, as well as an assessment of the demand for integrated education in the area where the proposed school is to be built.

Following the consultation process, and the submission of a transformation action plan, the final decision lies with the Minister of Education, the DUP’s Michelle McIlveen MLA who, despite her party’s opposition to the Act, has facilitated the transformation of six schools.

The Act does not place an onus on existing schools to transition away from their traditional models, with further exemptions for new proposed Irishmedium schools.

In the month of June, four schools held ballots over whether to transition to an integrated model, these were: St Eugene’s Primary School, Strabane, Magherafelt Nursery School, St Eugene’s Primary School, Tircur (near Omagh), and Lurgan Model Primary School. There are a further four schools that have undergone the ballot initiative, and are pending approval from the Minister for Education, or are awaiting further developments.

Since the passage of the Act, the Integrated Education Fund (IEF) confirmed that two schools have completed the transformation process and adopted integrated policies, which will come into effect for the new school term.

Going forward

The IEF has set a target of reaching 100 integrated academic institutions by the year 2025. Should the transformation of all the schools who have successfully completed the balloting process be confirmed, the number of integrated schools will stand at 73.

In Brandon Lewis MP’s last act as Secretary of State before his resignation on 7 June, he announced £1.9 million in funding for the Integrated Education Fund.

Lewis said on 6 June: “My hope is that integration will soon become the norm and not the exception in schools across Northern Ireland. The work done by the IEF and NICIE is essential in helping Northern Ireland’s children to grow up in a truly shared society.”

The £1.9 million will go to the Integrated Education Fund (IEF) and the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education (NICIE), which works to enable a greater number of children from different community backgrounds to be educated together. NICIE offers advice and support to parents and schools in the ballot process which sees parents vote on where to transform to an integrated school.

£1.5 million of the funding will be allocated to the IEF, with around £400,000 allocated to the NICIE. These funds will be spread out over the next two-and-a-half financial years.

Tina Merron, Chief Executive of the IEF, confirmed that 17 ballots have been held since the beginning of the IEF’s Integrate My School campaign, and called for the full implementation of the Integrated Education Act:

“Recent figures have shown that many integrated schools are oversubscribed; we need to work together to deliver an integrated place for every child who wants one.”

Finding a school place becoming “increasingly difficult” for refugee children

A report on the impact of Brexit on newcomer children has outlined challenges for non-English speaking children in the education system in Northern Ireland.

Finding a school place has become “increasingly difficult predominantly due a lack of physical capacity” for many refugee children.

Amid the significant increase in the number of refugees, the report identifies particular challenges for schools in meeting the learning needs of newcomer pupils; many of whom have had protracted breaks in their education. Pupils, who have experienced an interrupted education, are often entering schools at an educational baseline several years behind their peers in addition to any language related challenges.

The challenges which have arisen from Brexit, as well as the Afghan refugee crisis, have exacerbated a range of issues for newcomer pupils in accessing education, including low school readiness; language barriers; issues accessing the curriculum, and the breadth of differentiation needed to support learning for newcomer and other pupils.

With the increasing number of refugees from Afghanistan, as well as the incoming refugees from Ukraine via the respective resettlement schemes, it is likely that the pressures on the education system will be exacerbated going forward.

The report outlines that “schools have identified a lack of resources/funding/support to help meet the specific needs of these pupils, which include low levels of language proficiency, educational interruption and possible impact of trauma”.

There are nine times as many newcomer children in non-grammar schools than are in grammar schools. This in spite of the fact that grammar schools make up over one third of all schools in Northern Ireland.

Impact of Brexit on newcomer children

Newcomer children account for roughly five per cent of all pupils in Northern Ireland.

Whilst the number of newcomer children in Northern Ireland in the 2021/22 academic year was 4,400 more than 2016/17, and net migration into Northern Ireland remains steady, there has been a notable decline in arrivals from the European Union, with an increase in arrivals from outside the EU.

Between 2016 and 2020, there was a 73 per cent decrease in arrivals from Poland, a 57 per cent decrease in arrivals from Romania, and a 62 per cent decrease in arrivals from Lithuania. Simultaneously, there were five times as many arrivals from Zimbabwe in 2020 compared with 2016.

Overall, the number of immigrants remained fairly even in the period of 2016 to 2020, but the decline in EU arrivals and increase in arrivals from non-EU states suggests that Brexit has impacted EU citizens’ desire to move to Northern Ireland. This is in spite of the fact that the new points-based immigration system had not yet come into effect.

This is a trend which is emulated in the UK as a whole, where there has been a 58 per cent decline in EU migration between 2016 and 2020 and a doubling of non-EU migration in the same time period.

Asylum seekers and refugees

The number of asylum seekers receiving support increased by 56 per cent in the year 2021 compared to 2020, amid the Afghan refugee crisis, with further pressure expected amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Refugee and asylum seeking children are especially likely to have experienced an interrupted education, in addition to other challenges in accessing education. These include language and communication issues, prejudice and racism, social exclusion, literacy issues, and limited or no resources to deal with or awareness of the specific challenges that asylum seekers and refugees face. Refugees and asylum seeking children and young people have a more elevated risk for psychological difficulties than other newcomers.

Furthermore, the report recommends that teenage asylum seekers over the age of 16 should be taught English by a new framework which uses a joint up approach between the Department of Education and the Department for the Economy. It also critiques the ‘online only’ means by which English classes were being taught for refugee children over the age of 16. The report recommends a system which encourages refugee children to have increased access to skills and vocational areas.