Speaking on behalf of Workers Party Youth Ordhan has described the decision to reallocate £150 million in Fresh Start Funding from the UK Government Treasury to Strule Shared Education Campus as further evidence that the Executive is not interested in implementing the commitment made in the Good Friday Agreement to promote and provide integrated education.

The reallocation has resulted in ten planned capital projects for integrated schools being stalled, with these projects now placed on the Department of Education’s capital waiting list. Instead of five schools being integrated we are now seeing one campus with five separate and segregated schools. Ordhan stated 65% of the people in Northern Ireland support integrated education. Yet, the executive parties are reluctant to act on the democratic will of the citizens who want their children to be educated together.

The Workers Party made a detailed response to the proposals in the integrated education consultation and were critical of the lack of vision and commitment shown in those proposals. Workers Party youth are demanding that integrated and secular education is given the status it deserves. According to the Integrated Education Fund parents overwhelmingly support the integration of their schools. Yet we see vested interests being the biggest obstacle to achieving a fully integrated education system for our young people.

Shared education is an illusion of of progress using the funds that were ring fenced for integrated education. Parents who want this generation of children to be educated together should not be fobbed off with shared education as an alternative. The Workers Party and Workers Party Youth will be campaigning and raising awareness on the need for an integrated and secular education system. We will be highlighting the value of such a system in mending the sectarian scars that runs deep in our society.

Shared Education is a fig leaf for the status quo.

placeholder image — Shared Education is a fig leaf for the status quo.

It is therefore unconscionable that our political system is prepared to spend £600,000 per day on a system that keeps our children apart and perpetuates the sectarian divide in Northern Ireland. We demand the chance for every young working class person to break the cycle of sectarianism and hopelessness we have seen demonstrated across Northern Ireland.