Alliance Party Deputy Leader and Education Spokesperson Naomi Long has said the Secretary of State’s comments describing integrated education as “a vital building block” are bewildering. The comments seem in direct contrast to the Government’s refusal to allow parents access to integrated education at four locations across Northern Ireland.
Naomi Long stated: “The Secretary of State’s comments are utterly baffling. How on earth can the Government talk about its ‘duty to encourage and facilitate integrated education’ when, within the past week, it has done the precise opposite?
“It is no surprise so many people are giving up on the political process, when those supposedly leading it engage in such astonishing hypocrisy.
“If the Secretary of State is serious about facilitating integrated education, he must put it further up the agenda and ensure that all parents who want an integrated education have access to one. It is absolutely intolerable that parents are denied that free choice. It is
time for action, not words.”
ENDS