While just 8% of school children in Northern Ireland are attending integrated schools, education in the North is much more integrated, a researcher has said.

A Belfast think tank, Pivotal, has shown that education is still predominantly segregated in Northern Ireland 27 years on from the signing of the Good Friday Agreement.

On The Pat Kenny Show, Director of the centre for shared education at Queen's University, Belfast, Professor Joanne Hughes said despite the low number in integrated schools, there is a much greater integration in education.

"We do have a relatively small number of integrated schools, but at [a] systemic level there is now much greater integration in education in Northern Ireland than would have been the case 15 or 20 years ago,” she said. 

“Partly because we have had since 2007 an initiative called shared education, which is where what would be seen as kind of divided schools, Catholic and Protestants, collaborate together to improve educational outcomes for all children. 

“So there are school collaborations which mean that children cross between separate schools, and for some of them, they'll have part of their education within a school that's not the school that they enrolled in.

“So while there's a small integrated sector, there is now much more integration within the system.”

Students in a classroom taking a test, Alamy

Prof Hughes said within shared education there is further opportunity for integration.

“So within shared education, there is opportunity for pupils to be educated together, to spend time together, to have sustained interaction, to play sports together,” she said.

“I mean, some of the extracurricular activities are run on a shared basis, so there is much more opportunity for sharing. 

“But it is also the case that we have a relatively small number of integrated schools, just around 70, which are schools established with the aim of educating Catholic and Protestants and other faiths in the same school.”

School pupils at a St. Patrick's Day Mass, St. Patrick's Church, Thornaby, North Yorkshire, UK. 17/3/2022. Image: Stuart Boulton / Alamy. 17 March 2022

Prof Hughes said research that she has been involved in looks at the quality and quantity of contact between children from different religious groups.

“We've looked at the quality and quantity of contact experienced by children across the education system [and] what we know is that the more contact that pupils experience, the less prejudiced they are,” she said.

“The more pro-social attitudes they have and the more they're able to understand, you know, the kind of background and traditions of kids from the other community.

“So more integration is definitely a positive thing and that chimes with international evidence as well.

“The question is how do you do that? Integrated schools are part of a solution, I think, but so too is creating opportunities within separate schools and between separate schools for more contact between kids from different traditions.”

Children queue up for a meal in a school canteen, Alamy.

Prof Hughes said that while integrated schools are attractive to parents, they will always choose to place their children in schools that are perceived to be best for their educational outcomes.

“We have a system of academic selection here in Northern Ireland – so, our integrated primary schools tend to attract pupils from both community backgrounds and along all kind of socio economic lines,” she said.

“However, at post-primary level what we tend to find is that whilst parents may express a preference for an integrated school, they often make decisions on where to send their children based on what they perceive to be the best schools in terms of educational outcomes.

“Because integrated schools at post primary level are non-selective, it's likely that parents are making the choice to send their children to selective schools if they can get them into them, and the selective schools tend to be separate.”

“If you look at surveys over the years, it's always around kind of 60% to 80% of parents say that they want integrated education for their pupils or that they're not opposed to it, but sometimes that parents will make choices not based on integration as a first preference.”

Prof Hughes said that parents are “supportive” of integrated schools but the priority for them is the “best education for their children”.

Unoccupied school classroom. Image: Alamy