Trevor Lunn MLA said: “One of the aims of Atlantic Philanthropies is to see more of our children being educated together, so I hope that they will look to direct some of this money towards integrated education.
“While I welcome the grants for shared education, which has a role to play in achieving a shared future, these initiatives do not go far enough by themselves in reducing segregation in our society.
“Shared education must be delivered alongside integrated education; it should not be seen as an alternative to increasing the number of integrated schools. The Executive must not use shared education as an excuse for not supporting integrated education, which it has a legal duty to encourage and facilitate, which it has failed to fulfil in recent years.
“I will also be closely scrutinising these shared education grants to ensure that this money goes towards genuine shared education projects. Shared education must be about increasing the interaction between children from different backgrounds, as opposed to the Executive’s shared campuses porposals where children will only share the same front gate before going to separate buildings.”
ENDS