AQW 17970/22-27

Ms Kellie Armstrong
Alliance Party
Strangford

Tabled Date: 11/11/2024
Answered On Date: 12/11/2024
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Education to detail any additional funding that will be provided to the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education to deliver research to identify methods of establishing parental demand for integrated education.

Answer:

The duty to monitor, assess and aim to meet parental demand falls to the Department of Education (DE) and the Education Authority (EA) not the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education (NICIE).

Section 4 of the Integrated Education Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 states -

4.—(1) In Article 64(1) of the Education Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 1989 (Department’s duties in respect of integrated education) for “to encourage and facilitate” substitute “to encourage, facilitate and support”.

(2) In section 2 of the Education Act (Northern Ireland) 2014 (functions of Education Authority) after subsection (3) (Authority’s duties in respect of shared education) insert—

“(3A) It is a duty of the Authority (so far as its powers extend) to encourage, facilitate and support integrated education.”.

NICIE has been asked to undertake an engagement exercise in a number of localities where the Department has identified demand as part of their ongoing work programme.