Statement by TUV North Down Assembly candidate John Gordon:
“The TUV is strongly opposed to the Alliance sponsored Integrated Education Bill currently under consideration in the Assembly.
“The enactment of the Bill would legally mandate the requirement for the Department of Education to provide spaces for all children whose parents wished them to attend an ‘integrated school’ as defined within the bill.
“Further, the enactment of the Bill would mandate that when planning for the establishment of new schools, education bodies must apply a presumption of an integrated school being established in any situation where a new school is being planned.
“These considerations mean that the enactment of the Bill would operate to the detriment of the preferences of parents for the education of their children within the existing maintained and controlled sectors rather than in new ‘integrated schools’ as defined within the terms of the Bill.
“The TUV leader in the Assembly debates has exposed the inherently discriminatory nature of the bill which requires the advancement, promotion and support of the proposed new integrated sector above other existing sectors.
“The discriminatory impact of the Bill if enacted is unavoidable for obvious reasons of finance. The costs involved in the implementation of the Bill if enacted would be extensive and would mean the diversion of financial resources away from the ‘non-integrated’ education sector.
“But given that the education budget is finite the medium and long term financial repercussions for existing secondary and grammar schools in Northern Ireland would be highly adverse.
“There is no reason to believe that the Alliance Party has given any serious consideration to the current and future costs of implementing the Bill.
“But in addition to inbuilt discrimination, clause 1 and 2 of the Integrated Education Bill requires that children of ‘different abilities’ be ‘educated together’ which means that the enactment of the bill would legally prohibit ‘selection’.
‘”Selection’ is a necessary condition for the maintenance of what is distinctive about a grammar school education. This means that there is deeply embedded in the provisions of clause 1 and 2 an objective that Martin McGuinness and Sinn Fein failed to achieve – the destruction of Northern Ireland’s grammar schools.
“There is a further danger lurking in the provisions of clause 1 and 2 which mandate the requirement to ‘promote, protect and improve’ an ‘ethos of diversity, respect and understanding’.
“What is the danger here? The danger here is that given the ‘woke’ mentality relating to a range of ‘diversities’ that is increasingly permeating the education establishment and media, the provisions of clause 1 and 2 could be used to mandate the teaching of ‘values’ that no sane parent would wish for their children.
“There is indeed a need for new thinking particularly with respect to secondary education. But the required new thinking is certainly not to be found in the Integrated Education bill.
“What is the required new thinking? There is almost entirely absent at the secondary level the real opportunity for young people to pursue a substantial vocational and technical education.
“The absence of this alternative means that there is a vast waste of financial resources at the secondary level which does not provide young people with the opportunity to develop their real vocational and technical abilities in a way that would equip them to secure employment that is personally satisfying for them and highly productive for the economy.”