Sir, – Discussions on integrated education in Northern Ireland conveniently ignore the lack of an integrated curriculum and the complete imbalance in teaching. To take just one example, in the “Government and Politics” curriculum for A level, updated in 2016, students are required in Unit A1 to learn about the British political process and separately about the NI political system. In Unit A2 they then have an option to do either a comparative study of the US political system and the UK system or to compare the UK system with the Irish political system.
So having some exposure to, and very basic knowledge of, the Irish political system is only considered optional by educators in the north. Consequently a large proportion of the generation of children born after the Belfast Agreement learn about a political system almost 3,000 miles away across the Atlantic but learn nothing about the system which operates a few miles away in Donegal, Cavan or Dublin. This is just a very small example of a curriculum which makes a mockery of the idea that it is integrated or balanced. It appears that learning about the geography, environment, ecology and history of the small island on which they live is something that must be defied and resisted at worst or tolerated in small amounts at best. Not only is this a failure to deliver a balanced or locally relevant curriculum, it fails students. Of course the system has been set up to avoid references to the south or the rest of the island, but how can children and young adults in Northern Ireland be equipped to make decisions on the future of this island if they are not educated about basic aspects of political and associated life in the south? This may appear absurd but is in fact quite normal as structural ignoring of issues south of the border runs right through public society and mainstream media in the north. Is it any surprise there is such fear and ignorance of all things Irish in certain sections of the north if there is no meaningful exposure across education or mainstream media?
It’s also abundantly clear that post-Brexit, UK government and media will certainly not be giving a fair or balanced representation of anything associated with the EU. This is particularly concerning when combined with a NI curriculum that delivers a six county view of life and a UK view of history and the world which is a long way from being balanced or integrated. – Yours, etc,
DAMIEN BENNETT,
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Belfast.