Ulster Unionist Party spokesman on education Danny Kinahan MLA has advocated the introduction of educational action zones to target areas of underachievement in Northern Ireland.

Speaking in a debate on the issue of educational underachievement for Protestant working-class boys in receipt of free school meals, Mr Kinahan said:

“Too often we concentrate on GCSEs and A levels, when, in fact, it is the whole value-added approach that we must focus on. If we look at other countries, we will see that, in America, they have turnaround programmes. You can learn from them, just as we do when we look at Finland and others. We need to look for actions, not strategies. We need to have all of the Departments working together at the highest level and all in tune with where we are going.

We must focus on urging, encouraging and even impelling everybody to work together at local level, so I am going to focus on action zones or turnaround zones. We should concentrate on grouping the schools and communities together as well as the parents, the social and sporting clubs, the lodges, the community groups, and the Churches and their community groups. Pull them all together, but find an inspirational leader or Tsar.

The Ulster Unionist Party has put forward the pupil premium. At the moment the common funding is being changed. It is taking money off one school for another. That is not the way forward. We need to speak more to the schools on the ground and have the schools, the boards and the Departments all looking at what is needed on the ground in those action zones and turnaround zones and actually putting events on the ground that help the children.”