Trevor Lunn MLA said: “John O’Dowd seems to be missing the biggest opportunity that exists within our education system. Tackling division in education is the elephant in the room and it must be addressed. Having more shared and integrated education provides our system with the best chance of delivering value for money. Alliance is and has been leading change for shared and integrated education and we will continue to keep the pressure on all parties on this issue.
“Segregation in education is one of the biggest wastes of money in our system and the opportunities that sharing and integration provide must be seized as quickly as possible.
“The Minister has made his proposals whilst admitting disappointment at the lack of progress on the Education and Skills Authority. We believe that it would be easier to implement the wide ranging changes which we all want if ESA were in place.
“The real next steps for education simply have to be removing segregation in our system. To fail to take the opportunities that tackling segregation provides will not help Northern Ireland move towards a shared future.”
ENDS