Educators in North see new room to move

Everyone involved in education in Northern Ireland knows change is in the air. If the Assembly achieves takeoff, three departments will be formed to provide posts for ministers. Whether there is a consequent improvement in services in relation to such expanded bureaucracy remains to be seen.

But behind the political posturing and press headlines there is much serious dialogue and effort being made by practitioners in education who recognise in the Belfast Agreement the possibility of a climate of opportunity which permits reassessment and realignments without offence being given.

Substantial credit for this opportunity must be given to the North's former education minister, Mr Tony Worthington MP, who, in my opinion and probably that of most people in the Northern education system, was a most unwarranted casualty in the Labour government's reshuffle of its Stormont castle team.

Tony Worthington was the first minister to take seriously the long-uttered complaints of the Church of Ireland, the Methodist and Presbyterian churches' Boards of Education.

They claimed they had been persistently excluded from the various working parties which over recent years had attempted to shape, often with little genuine consultation, the course of education in Northern Ireland.

The Roman Catholic and integrated schools almost always had representation on these working parties but no similar recognition was taken of the three churches which had transferred their school system into one of partnership with the Northern local education authorities to form the "controlled schools" sector.

Since Tony Worthington's decision to involve them these three churches, whose education boards work collaboratively through the Transferor Representatives' Council (TRC), have been represented on four different working parties, three of which are dealing with cross-community issues.

The consultative report of the first of these working parties was unveiled by Mr John Faul MP, Mr Worthington's determined-to-push-ahead successor, in Armagh just before Christmas.

The report, "Towards a Culture of Tolerance: Integrating Education", was presented to a most representative group, including the leaders of the four main churches, the five education and libraries boards, the Council for Integrated Education and the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools.

The consultative document recognises that the Roman Catholic church, while totally committed to promoting tolerance in its schools, nevertheless prefers the status quo of its own church-managed education system rather than any integrated model of schooling.

There is also recognition of the three reformed churches' concerns that the process of transforming the mainly Protestant-attended controlled schools to a controlled-integrated status, while being the cheapest building option in increasing the number of integrated schools, is an option which primarily costs the Protestant churches and the Protestant community. These costs are in the areas of influence in management and in job opportunities.

Currently, under this process of transformation, the Protestant churches' membership of boards of governors is halved in most cases to just two members out of nine. The requirement to produce a teaching staff which is balanced in its composition of Protestants and Roman Catholics also means there will be far fewer job and promotion opportunities for Protestants in the teaching profession as a whole.

Appointments to teaching posts in Roman Catholic schools require applicants to have a confessional qualification acceptable to that church. The irony must be noted that from their foundation, by law and practice, controlled schools have been open to pupils of all faiths and of none.

DESPITE these verging-on-the-discriminatory regulations in respect of the transformation process, the TRC is fully involved in the two working parties following up on aspects of the December 16th "Towards a Culture of Tolerance: Integrating Education" report.

One working party is tasked to produce an information pack which will clarify the various stages and implications for schools and boards of governors wishing to explore the transformation route. The other is reviewing how the Education for Mutual Understanding programme in schools can be enhanced and be made even more effective.

It is hoped an outcome fair and acceptable to most parties will be found to enable, in particular, a proactive approach by the reformed churches in promoting transformation to controlled-integrated status.

Whether or not this is achievable is unknown but I am confident that arising from the discussion and dialogue, improved relations between several of the parties have started and I see the Transferor Representatives' Council having a pivotal role to play in the future.

On the one hand it can engage with the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education (NICIE) in the search for models of integration which respect the values of all who seek to be involved in this process.

Already this has led to an agreement between TRC and NICIE to meet each term and to explore common initiatives. On the other hand the churches which form the TRC are already partners with the Roman Catholic Church in the authorship and ownership of the Common Core Programme in Religious Education, which is a statutory area of Northern Ireland Common Curriculum.

This is a partnership which the Republic and other European countries could emulate. In the enhancement of that programme and in exploring the possibility of clustering schools or the establishment of joint sixth-form colleges, both the TRC and their Roman Catholic partners in education can co-operate productively while continuing to recognise and respect each other's value-systems in education.

Over-arching all this are many values which mercifully are almost taken for granted in Northern Ireland. All involved in the process are concerned about the maintenance and further development of a first-class education system for all the children of the community and quite definitely one that is based on sound mental, moral, and spiritual values.

Canon Houston McKelvey is secretary of the Church of Ireland General Synod Board of Education (Northern Ireland), and honorary secretary of the Transferor Representatives' Council.