Significant roadblocks remain for Northern Irish schools seeking to become integrated, according to a new report.
The research was carried out by Queen’s University Belfast to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the process of ‘transformation’, whereby a school can attain integrated status.
Over 90% of children in NI attend schools which are effectively segregated along religious lines. Previous research has shown this exacerbates sectarian division within the broader community.
Integrated schools, by contrast, proactively educate children from across religious communities in the same setting. Integrated schools currently comprise 71 of the 1000 schools in NI, 31 of which have undergone transformation processes.
The Integrated Education Act passed in 2022 requires the Northern Ireland Executive to support integrated schools. But there are only 71 integrated schools in NI, educating just 8% of pupils.
“Onerous” bureaucracy deterring transformation
The Integrated Education Act defines an integrated student body as including “reasonable numbers of both Protestant and Roman Catholic children”.
The report said it was essential to clarify what constitutes “reasonable numbers” of children from across communities, in order to minimise the opportunity for applications to be rejected on these grounds.
Minister for Education Paul Givan denied applications earlier this year for integration by Bangor Academy, NI’s largest school, as well as neighbouring Rathmore Primary – despite overwhelming support for transformation from parents.
Givan’s cited rationale was that the new integrated schools could not enrol sufficient numbers of children from Catholic backgrounds – the ‘minority’ community within the previously Protestant schools.
The report also found the administrative process of submitting a proposal for transformation to the Department of Education (DE) was unnecessarily onerous, with most respondents describing it as a deterrent to transformation.
The DE’s own guidance states that a ministerial decision should be received by the start of the year prior to that in which the school intends to transform. However, many schools face waiting times of up to 18 months after applying – hindering their ability to prepare for transformation, including attracting pupils from the ‘minority’ community.
Financial barriers
Financial support for transformation has also declined in relative terms. Since 2016, the DE has made £20,000 available per annum to support schools with the costs associated with transformation. This sum is divided among all eligible schools.
Increased costs, and numbers of schools interested in transformation, mean this funding is no longer sufficient. Grant-funding from the charity Integrated Education Fund (IEF) has become crucial in facilitating schools to transform, the report said.
School leaders participating in the report expressed “misgivings” about a charitable organisation providing more substantial support for a statutory process than a government department. However, they said schools “highly valued” the assistance the IEF provides.
The report said the failure to provide adequate resources for schools was incongruent with the department’s statutory duty, and called for an review of statutory funding for schools.
Under-provision of integrated placements
The Integrated Education Act also mandates the DE to measure demand for integrated education, which it does through its ‘Parental School Admissions Survey’.
Results released from the most recent survey suggested 31% of parents would prefer their child attended an integrated school.
Yet the DE openly conceded that “it is possible that parents who did not go through the admissions process in 2025 may have completed the survey”, and it was reported by the Integrated Education Fund that policy officials circulated the survey to several sectoral bodies, but not the Council for Integrated Education.
Moreover , the recently published Northern Ireland Life and Times survey found 55% of parents would in fact prefer an integrated education for their children, in response to a DE-sponsored question.
When parents whose children did not go to an integrated primary and post-primary school were asked the reasons why not, most respondents said that this was due to a lack of local provision (66%), or oversubscription (13%), at integrated schools.
NSS: Integration ‘undermined by onerous process and lack of DE support’
NSS spokesperson Fódhla Brady said: “These pieces of research are just the latest evidence of the appetite for integrated education on the part of both schools and parents.
“However, it is clear those efforts are being undermined by an onerous process and a lack of government support . Data collection on the part of the DE has also been woefully poor.
“We urge the Executive to take heed of the report’s recommendations and meet the increasing demand for inclusive education in NI, in accordance with its statutory duty.”