Givan says school funding reforms will boost parental choice - but UUP raise fears about rural schools
The Department of Education's latest announcement on school funding risks accelerating the decline of rural schools, which serve as the heart of their communities, the UUP leader has said.
Jon Burrows was responding to an announcement by Stormont’s education minister Paul Givan about plans to reform Northern Ireland’s school admissions system.
The DUP minister says the plans will put “parental preference at the heart of decision-making” – and allow schools to more easily increase their intakes where parental demand exists.
Minister Givan said: “This is about putting parents and children first. Where schools have the capacity and are willing to admit pupils, parental preference must carry far greater weight. For too long, we have seen situations where children could not attend the school their parents chose, even when there was space available. That is something that I have been determined to change".
However, Mr Burrows said the announcement would be welcomed by grammar schools and larger urban schools, but “will cause real concern in rural areas, the very communities the existing policy was designed, in part, to protect”.
He added: “The Ulster Unionist Party has always supported parental choice. But choice must mean genuine choice for every family, not just those within reach of a large urban school. A policy that quietly drains pupils and funding from smaller schools doesn't expand choice. It removes it from rural parents altogether.
“There is a better way. Shared Education campuses such as Ballycastle show what is possible when rural schools are given the tools to shape their own future. By unlocking dormant capital transformation funding, that model could be replicated across Northern Ireland, giving pupils and parents a sustainable, high-quality alternative to closure.
“Yes, a declining birth rate means Northern Ireland will need fewer classrooms in the years ahead. But that transition must be managed strategically, not left to a funding formula that accelerates decline in the communities that can least afford to lose their local school. A strong education system is one in which every school, and every community, has the opportunity to succeed.”