Ulster Unionist Education Spokesperson, Danny Kinahan MLA has said that he welcomes anything that moves Northern Ireland towards a truly shared education system, but states that the “Advancing Shared Education” report severely damages its own standing by its unreserved attack on grammar schools and selection.

Mr Kinahan said,

“I welcome the emphatic recognition of the positive role which shared education could play in Northern Ireland. It is simply no longer acceptable that young people can progress through the education system with little understanding or experience of other cultures and this inevitably adds to the divisions which are apparent within our society.

“My party believes that greater sharing across schools and sectors is therefore a crucial stepping stone towards our long-term vision for education in Northern Ireland; a single system where children of all faiths and none are educated together. We need to work on the ground to lessen segregation and get greater involvement from local communities.  

“In particular I welcome the report`s very first recommendation which states that the current Education Bill needs amended. My Party would agree with this and we have already indicated our intention to table an amendment which would place a statutory duty on the Department to encourage and facilitate shared education.

“It is unfortunate however that the advisory group have sought in their report to divert some of the focus away from shared education and onto the future of academic selection. The primary brief of the panel was to report on shared education and not selection. The whole debate is being poisoned by Sinn Fein`s consistent attempts to destroy grammar schools.

“All parties need to sit down and agree a way forward. The debate is not helped at all by the panel stating that academic selection should be outlawed. It is remarkable and disappointing that the panel has recommended that every ethos is accommodated apart from that of streaming pupils towards excellence.

“This position is all the more ridiculous given that in the next recommendation they urge the Department to ‘have regard of parental demand’ whilst also making ‘every effort to ensure diversity of provision’, and thereby ignoring the clear public desire to have selection.

“I have to question what breadth of views were represented during the compilation of this report and also the fact that the panel report flies in the face of the popularity of academic selection and a wish to keep it in place in some format.”