The integration of students in education can only come about if there is the same appetite for integrated housing
Although I am fully supportive of educational pluralism, I also support parental choice. I do not subscribe to the view that the mandatory integration of schools will somehow make sectarianism history.
It could be construed from Margaret Marshall’s letter that those parents who choose denominational education for their children are in some way not genuinely committed to a shared society.
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Hide AdIt could also be construed that Ms Marshall favours a compulsory integrated school system for all children against the wishes of some parents.
Does Ms Marshall suggest the mandatory integrated education, not just of Catholic and Protestant, but also Jews, Hindus and Muslims?
Since the foundation of the Northern state a policy of segregation of communities was rigorously enforced in line with the policy of gerrymandering to ensure continuation of unionist hegemony.
Indeed, a recent survey found that in excess of 90 per cent of the population in the North lives in denominationally segregated housing.
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Hide AdTherefore, the successful integration of students in education can only come about if there is the same appetite to pursue a similar policy of integrated housing.
This policy of integrated education which Ms Marshall proposes must be consensus-based, where difference is not just tolerated but respected, where all creeds, colours and systems are celebrated and where the existence of schools with a differing ethos is both welcomed and defended.
Tom Cooper, Dublin