'Shameful' DUP response to the education crisis

FROM:- Alderman Sam Gardiner MLA.

The DUP's Junior McCrum has shamefully overlooked the needs of children in his quest to score cheap political points (Lurgan Mail, August 12).

I am astounded that Mr McCrum has so spectacularly missed the point in his distinctly shabby statement. Given that the issue of school absenteeism was debated - based on the very figures I quoted - in the Assembly just before the summer recess, then clearly it is he who is 'out of touch'.

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Mr McCrum's own party colleague Mervyn Storey - the Chairperson of the Committee for Education no less - commended the Ulster Unionist Party for raising this issue in the Assembly in June.

If Mr Storey is concerned in June by the correlation between socio-economic circumstances and poor school attendance, and the fact that the Minister has yet to outline what she is doing about underachievement, then who is Mr McCrum to consider the issue outdated in July?

If he feels the need to criticise inaction, then he should perhaps correspond with Mr Storey on the fact that, by his own admission, even the Education Committee has so far failed to address this subject directly.

The DUP appear to have completely missed the point. Absenteeism hasn't been resolved in the past nine months, nor is it likely to be when public representatives are more interested in unwarranted, unnecessary and downright childish attacks.

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Instead of engaging positively with me on this issue in an effort to secure a positive outcome for these children, Mr McCrum has been driven by shabby political self-interest. I must admit to being deeply disappointed.