Mixed schools 'not as sectarian'

azzuri · Mixed schools 'not as sectarian'

see - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4621426.stm

Mixed schools 'not as sectarian'

People who attend integrated schools in NI could create a new political common ground, researchers have said.

Academics at Queen's University in Belfast said educating Catholics and Protestants together shows young people end up with less sectarian views.

Their report follows six years of research into the political attitudes and identities of young people.

It suggested those at integrated schools were more likely to reject traditional identities and allegiances.

Professor Bernadette Hayes, Professor Ian McAllister and Lizanne Dowds used a range of surveys to study if the attitudes of people who had an integrated education differed from those who went to a segregated school.

Their report, published on Wednesday, is entitled: "In search of the middle ground: Integrated education and Northern Ireland politics."

Professor Hayes said: "These results, tentative as they are, add weight to the studies which have shown that integrated schools can and do have an impact on the outlooks of the pupils who attend them.

"Moreover, our study - based on a large sample of the adult population - suggests that the positive effects of integrated schooling extend into later life.

"As the numbers experiencing integrated schooling grows, these individuals have the potential to create a new common ground in Northern Ireland politics."

The report suggests:

Protestants who attended an integrated school were less likely to say that they were British or unionist; however, they were not willing to adopt an Irish or nationalist identity.

Catholics who attended an integrated school were less likely to endorse an Irish identity, but were more likely to say they were neither unionist nor nationalist.

80% of Protestants who attended a fairly mixed or segregated school favoured the union with Britain, compared to 65% of those who went to an integrated school.

51% of Catholics who attended a segregated school supported Irish re-unification, compared to 35% of those who had experienced integrated education.

BBC Northern Ireland education correspondent Maggie Taggart said: "There is an argument that parents who choose integrated education are more likely to be liberal minded and that is transmitted to their children.

"However, recent research suggests the type of school a child attends has a bigger influence on attitudes than parents.

"Researchers say long term research is needed to find the truth of the matter."

Integrated education has been promoted as a way to break down Northern Ireland's sectarian divisions.

The first integrated school in Northern Ireland was Lagan College which opened near Belfast in 1981 and there are now 57 integrated schools with more than 17,000 pupils on the roll books.

Rinty · j

I would rather have secular schools instead of "mixed" schools personally but I think that there are three flaws in this report.

The first is that you have to find out the attitudes of the parents who would send their kids to integrated schools first. If, for instance, the figures were similar for the parents then the school could be shown to have no effect, if the parents are sectarian then the school can be shown to be working.

The second flaw is that it tells us nothing about the areas where the schools are and where the kids come from. It may be that an integrated school is only workable in an area that already has a less polarised outlook.

The other flaw, and the biggest one, is that it assumes that having an identity is the same as being sectarian. The 65% of kids at the school who feel unionist or British are not necessarily bigots or sectarian.

Aventinian

I don't believe the state should fund religious observance.

Anything other than that is fine.

stuarty

why children should be separated at 5 because of religion is lost on me, and we are told that seperate schooling does not divide. pfffft, i despair.

parkhead_rfb

Rinty · h

In my town half the kids at the "catholic" primary are non-catholics. In my street kids are separated by being on a border line. the young kids in my street attend any one of 4 primaries. Why is it only the catholic one that is divisive?

My friends in Blackpool send their kids to a catholic primary, why doesn't it cause the same divisions in England.

Why doesnt the 250 state funded protestant schools in the Republic of Ireland cause the same divisions as the catholic schools in Northern Ireland?

As I said, I believe in secular education.

But if we are going to look at religion in our current set up we have to remember that all of our state schools have a religious element. We dont offer the choice of catholic schools or non-religious schools, we offer the choice between catholic and non-denominational schools. i.e. a school that is not a particular denomination of protestant christian religion, but by law has to have an element of protestant christian faith.

I have a friend who recently retired from teaching in the local RC secondary while his kids attended the non-denominational school. According to him his kids were subjected to every bit as much religion as the kids where he taught and his kids saw far more visits from ministers in their school than he ever saw a priest where he taught.