Integrated Education Fund

The majority of primary school children and half of post-primary pupils in Northern Ireland have not heard of shared education, according to a new report.

The report findings are based on interviews with 750 children in 21 schools and more than 5,000 questionnaire responses. It was carried by the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People (NICCY) to find out the views and experiences of pupils about shared education. (more…)

Paul Caskey, Campaign Director of the Integrated Education Fund, joined past and present integrated school principals to share their experiences with an international gathering in Belfast recently.

Teachers from Israel, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Croatia and Cyprus as well as academics from Germany, the USA and Northern Ireland attended a Conference for Integrated Peace Education which focused on ways of bringing young people from different cultures together in a context of division and conflict.  The conference was hosted by Queen’s University Belfast and the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education in conjunction with the Hebrew University Jerusalem and the Open University of Cyprus and is supported by the Open Society. (more…)

Teachers, parents and politicians were urged to use “Sanity Not Vanity” as they consider the way forward for education in Northern Ireland, when a visitor from a project in Lancashire spoke at a debate hosted by the Integrated Education Fund in the Senate Chamber in Parliament Buildings.  A range of speakers and an invited audience were asked to consider the proposal that “The Time is Right for a Fully Integrated System of Education.”    (more…)

The Integrated Education Fund welcomes the acknowledgement and the importance given to greater sharing in education in the Programme for Government announced by the First Minister and Deputy First Minister. It is particularly encouraging that, in presenting the proposals to the Assembly, the First Minister underlined that the document “sets out a direction of travel”.

The document is not a final, fixed strategic plan; it is a consultation document and is open for public response until February 2012.  Members of the Integrated Education Movement will take the opportunity to scrutinise the proposals and submit analysis and comment. (more…)

First Minister Peter Robinson has underlined the value of sharing and integration at a ceremony to celebrate a language project in County Down.

Awarding certificates to primary school “graduates” of the Sharing Languages, Sharing Cultures project, Mr Robinson  praised everyone involved – the schools of all management types who join on a cross-cultural basis for language classes; Shimna Integrated College which runs the project; parents who have been supportive throughout ; Queens University’ Sharing Education Programme which backed the SLSC in its early years and funders Dr Gerard O’Hare and Atlantic Philanthropies  who have helped keep  the programme going. (more…)