Letter: No more controlled schools should close in Northern Ireland until unionists get a fair deal at universities

Re the closure of Kingsmill Primary School (January 24, see link below):

The truth, or one of the truths is, that for many years the (divided) Northern Ireland unionist political community has been unable to hold to account the Education Authority, the Department of Education, the Department of Further Education (which funds the NI university sector) and as a result the NI unionist community have lost hundreds of schools in the primary and secondary schools sector and the NI university sector is undoubtedly a cold-house for unionists.

The same is not true of the nationalist community who have trived with the continuence of the maintained (Catholic) education sector (a sector that is unmatched in NI with any similar Protestant church sector), the growing Irish-medium language school sector, and expansion of integrated schools that derive overwhemingly from closures in the controlled sector.

I have previously written to all NI unionist political parties to suggest that when the Education Authority publicises its intention to close a small (controlled) rural school, it does so without first committing itself to a Section 75 equality screening exercise. What typically happens is that the school gets blighted and paves the way within the next year or so for a reduction in the school population, thus enabling closure.

The argument is simple, beyond any doubt: unionists are marginalised in the NI university sector, the closure of these small rural 'state' schools increases this marginalisation and until unionists are 'equally' represented in the NI university sector no more controlled schools should be allowed to close!

Dr Edward Cooke, Mallusk

Kingmills primary school to close