THREE groups of parents are going ahead with plans to set up integrated second level schools in Northern Ireland in September despite being refused funding by the North's Department of Education.
The groups are from south and west Belfast; the Ards Peninsula and north Down; and Carrickfergus and Whitehead in east Antrim.
The Belfast parents had identified a site at Musgrave Park playing fields in south Belfast for the proposed Malone College. However, they were turned down for government funding in March due to delays in obtaining planning permission from the city council.
The co chairperson of the parents' steering group, Ms Nuala O'Connor, said yesterday they had now "secured all the funding we need from a variety of sources, through the Integrated Education Fund".
She said their situation had been "particularly unfair" as they had met all the criteria laid down by the Department of Education, with 120 first year pupils ready to start and a nearly 50-50 Catholic Protestant balance.
The new school will open in temporary premises in Derriaghy on the edge of south west Belfast.
The other two proposed schools, Strangford Integrated College and East Antrim Integrated College, were turned down by the Department in February as they had not met the criteria: a minimum first year enrolment of 100 pupils and a minimum of 30 per cent of that enrolment coming from the minority religion in the area. This decision was confirmed by the North's new Education Minister, Mr Tony Worthington, earlier this month.
However, the parents are also going ahead with plans to open these schools in September. Each school has 60-70 pupils ready to start and has already appointed a principal and five teachers. They will open in prefabs at Carradowe Castle, near Newtownards, and in Whitehead, Co Antrim.
Their financial position is less secure than that of their Belfast counterpart. They have been promised £200,000 each by the Integrated Education Fond, which was set up in 1992 with funding from the British government, the EU and a number of charitable trusts.
This leaves them with a shortfall of £200,000 for their first year, which they hope to raise from charitable trusts and other non governmental funding sources.
The chairman of the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education, Mr Colm Cavanagh, said yesterday: "We thought that since the 1989 legislation the government was starting to take on responsibility for integrated education. But now we find that we are back to the days 15 years ago when parents had to find the money to open their own schools."
The chairman of the Strangford parents steering group. Mr Michael McEvoy, said it was "one of the most optimistic signs" that, in the current atmosphere of sectarian tension, Catholic and Protestant parents were working jointly against all the odds to have their children educated together.
There are currently 33 integrated schools in the North.