Integrating Education in NI

Year Published:

The Report of the Independent Review of Integrated Education to Mr Peter Weir MLA, Minister for Education, Northern Ireland by Prof Margaret Topping and Mr Colm M Cavanagh

We were asked to carry out, independently of the Department, a review of integrated education. Our remit was to make recommendations on:

1. how to develop and grow integrated education;
2. how to develop a more integrated system in its widest sense to bring together increasing numbers of Protestant and Roman Catholic pupils within all schools (as distinct from the co-operation of separate shared schools); and
3. the allocation of £50 million per year for the period 2016-2026 made available for capital expenditure under the “Fresh Start” Agreement.

We were not asked to make the case for integrated education. The statutory duty since 1989 ‘to encourage and facilitate integrated education’ was to be taken as a given.