Ulster Unionist Education spokesperson and Vice Chair of the Education Committee, Danny Kinahan MLA, has demanded the Belfast Education and Library Board (BELB) take immediate steps to resolve the dispute which has left 200 pupils at Hazelwood Integrated College in north Belfast locked out of their classrooms.
Mr Kinahan said;
“The Belfast Education & Library Board must resolve this issue as a matter of priority so that Hazelwood pupils can access their classrooms and get on with their education.
"There is no time to wait for the Board’s next meeting, this is an issue to which there is an obvious solution and they need to get the remaining documents drawn up now, not next week or whenever bureaucracy can be bothered to schedule the next formal meeting.
"The issue is very straightforward and comes down to a basic failure of administration, by the lack of a tenancy agreement being agreed between the school and the Board. It is nothing less than shameful that as a result of that failure, the BELB has decreed that 200 pupils are paying the price.
This issue must be resolved immediately.”