Foyle/Ebrington delay and PUL kids forced to attend RC schools prompts UUP equality move

Local party Chairman Terry Wright and Secretary William Lamrock met with a representative of the Commission to discuss Unionist concerns during the summer.

“The Secretary, William Lamrock and I came away from the meeting satisfied that we had been given a fair hearing and we received an assurance that we would get feedback by September,” said Mr Wright.

“We remain convinced that there are important and crucial equality matters arising from the specific and broader issues from the delay in providing new school premises from Ebrington and Foyle College and await the response of the Equality Commission with interest,” he added.

Two weeks ago a cross-partisan delegation - including UUP leader Tom Elliott - as well as representatives from both schools met the Education Minister John O’Dowd in order to stress the strategic importance of the Foyle/Ebrington project.

Mr Wright said the UUP’s commitment to the Foyle/Ebrington project was longstanding and that the scheme would be of benefit to the whole city in terms of primary, secondary and third level education.

In addition to the failure to ringfence money for the co-location project Mr Wright also warned about the “worsening situation” in educational provision in the Controlled sector in Londonderry.

He said pupils from a Unionist background were being sent to sit A-Level courses in Catholic schools partly as a result of the rationalisation of education provision locally under the DE ‘Entitlement Framework’ which requires schools to offer 24 courses at Key Stage 4 and 27 courses at 16-19.

Schools in Londonderry have banded together in a local Learning Partnership in order to offer as wide a range of courses as possible more cost effectively.

In principle, this works fine, but Mr Wright says that given the lack of choice for parents and pupils of a Unionist background in Londonderry a special case needed to be made.

Mr Wright said the closure of Templemore High School and the merger of Clondermot High School and Faughan Valley High School had left Lisneal as the only Controlled High School in Londonderry.

Further the worsening financial situation was likely to have a detrimental effect on pupils attending Lisneal across all Key Stages. There was also the potential for redundancies and the danger of a downward spiral where high quality pupil-centred education could suffer.

He commented: “In the current economic climate there seems a clear rationale. However, in the roll-out of the schemes, the UUP is concerned that there is not a level playing field in Londonderry for pupils, parents or teaching and ancillary staff within the unionist community who depend on controlled schooling which has a distinct ethos.

“Demographic trends and economic cutbacks are affecting the capacity of controlled schooling to meet the requirements of the Entitlement Framework or Area-based Planning in Londonderry.

“In order to meet the requirements of the Entitlement Framework school managers within controlled schooling hit be redundancies, are having to place their pupils in other schools, as their only option, within the Learning Community to satisfy subject choices as defined within the statutory legislation.

“Whilst relations have the potential to be productive, pupils from controlled schools, unlike pupils from Maintained schools, are left with the only option of going to a school to further their education which has a different ethos to that which they chose in the first instance and is likely to be located in an area of the city with which they would have at best only a fleeting familiarity and may be at risk.

“In a normal society this might not be an issue but in a city like Londonderry which remains a community in transition wherein community relations are at times problematic, there is evidence that the situation is influencing and narrowing the choice of some pupils detrimentally and in so doing becomes an equality issue which must be addressed.”

He said shared education could not happen in isolation and needed to be supported by social and political initiatives.

He said Protestant pupils would be forced to attend schools whose ethos was different to the one for which they opted at age 11. The same would not apply to pupils in the Maintained sector given the proliferation of Catholic schools offering a wide range of A-Level courses in the Londonderry area.

“As pupils in controlled schools reduce, then teaching staff are being made redundant and this will in turn affect a school’s capacity to deliver the curriculum which will force more pupils to leave and any controlled school affected will go into a downward financial spiral. This is happening.

“In reducing subject expertise and maybe forcing larger classes, this will have a detrimental influence on the provision of high quality pupil-centred education in the school affected and the controlled ethos will be under threat

“The situation as it is unfolding is inherently unequal and the playing field is far from level. The UUP has called for an requests again an Equality Impact Assessment and Risk Assessment on the effects in the immediate situation of the Entitlement Framework and Area-based planning on staff, parents and staff involved in controlled schooling in Londonderry takes place,” he stated.

The local UUP chair says the “under-achievement” of Protestant boys in the city and the inequality which is likely to flow from the implementation of the Entitlement Curriculum was a source of concern.

“The unionist population whose children for the most part attend controlled schools, have cause to be concerned and wishes the situation to be addressed to ensure and guarantee equality of choice and opportunity on the basis of ethos, pupil safety and security, parental and pupil choice.

“The UUP accepts that the range of choices and options available from place to place will differ depending on a variety of factors however it is our belief that Londonderry presents a unique case.

“Recent publicity pertaining to the historic demographic shift in the city points to the need for public policy intervention and this will be best delivered by the ring-fencing of the necessary finance to fund new buildings for Ebrington and Foyle College,” he concluded.