FIRST MINISTER Peter Robinson has called for the creation of a “roadmap” to a single education system in Northern Ireland. Over the four years of the next Assembly a commission should be established to chart the way forward to a single system, he said in Downpatrick, Co Down, yesterday.
Mr Robinson, in a speech at Down High School, held to his view expressed last October that the current education system is a “benign form of apartheid” which is “fundamentally damaging to our society”.
In repeating his call for a single educational system in Northern Ireland he also did not deviate from his previous comment which Catholic education representatives viewed as an effective broadside against Catholic education.
In October he said: “I don’t in any way object to churches providing and funding schools for those who choose to use them. What I do object to is the state providing and funding church schools.”
Mr Robinson, expanding on his October comments, said it was not surprising that that speech caused controversy. He said while some questioned his motivation it was not intended as an attack on “maintained” (or Catholic) education.
The message he received at the time about his speech was to “back off”, he told the students. “But in truth, it was simply an attempt to use the platform I have as First Minister to start a debate and seek to break down divisions and build for a better future. It was certainly not intended as an attack on the maintained sector. The academic record of many schools in that sector speaks for itself.
“Given our divided history I believe that it is difficult to build a shared and united community while we continue to educate our young people separately,” he asserted.
“It’s not that separate education facilities are inherently unequal in Northern Ireland, it is just that they do not assist in the creation of the shared community here that we need and wish to see. This goes to the heart of our vision for the future,” said Mr Robinson.
“In the next four years I want to see a roadmap produced for a single education system. I don’t know exactly what shape it will take but I want to see all those interested and involved in education sitting down together to explore how this can best be achieved, while respecting the position of all sectors,” he added.
Mr Robinson indicated that even without support from other political parties he would press ahead with his plans.
