Sir, – I refer to the letter by Gillian McGrath in which she extols the virtues of all strands of education but disagrees with President Michael D Higgins's view on the segregated nature of the system here in Northern Ireland (Letters, February 28th).
Ms McGrath is correct in all she says and indicates that much goes on to encourage shared projects and programmes, which is true, but the fact remains that all this work is contrived and operated from within the specific systems we have here. She mentions the benefits of integrated education and sees the value of it. I think this is what the President was hinting at too and I don’t really see why she thinks his comments were unhelpful. My own view is that all the benefits gained from these shared programmes happen much more easily and cheaply when the student from a different background is sitting at the desk next to you – not three miles away on a different campus. Integrated education of course protects the differences and allows them to flourish in the school.
I see that Brandon Lewis, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, is of the same view as the President and laments the slow progress of integrated education over the past 30 years. Only 143 schools out of 1,000 have at least 10 per cent of pupils from a Protestant background and 10 per cent from a Catholic background. There are either no Protestant or no Catholic students in 30 per cent of schools.
The system at present sort of works where exams are concerned but education should be about much, much more in our fractured society. – Yours, etc,
IAIN KENNEDY,
Enniskillen,
Co Fermanagh.