Boost for integrated education

There are currently 50 integrated schools in Northern Ireland

Four new schools to teach Catholic and Protestant children together have been given approval.

Integrated primary schools will open in Cookstown, Limavady and Ballynahinch, while a new college will be set up in Armagh, Education Minister Jane Kennedy announced on Thursday.

Cookstown's integrated school has been named Phoenix Integrated Primary School while the school planned for Limavady will be known as Roe Valley Integrated Primary.

Ms Kennedy has also approved the transformation of Glencraig Primary School in Holywood and Groomsport Primary School into integrated schools.

Both County Down schools already draw pupils from both sides of the community.

The Department is still considering the application from Lir Primary school in Ballycastle, County Antrim.

I recognise that this news is eagerly awaited and will provide clarity for many parents and children making decisions about their future educational options Jane Kennedy Education minister

Ms Kennedy said she was pleased to make the announcement.

"The Department (of Education) has a statutory duty to encourage and facilitate the development of integrated education and it provides support and funding for the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education," she said.

"Each proposal is considered carefully, based on all the information available, including the evidence that a new school would be viable in the areas concerned.

"I recognise that this news is eagerly awaited and will provide clarity for many parents and children making decisions about their future educational options."

However, Ulster Unionist education spokesman Danny Kennedy warned the new post-primary school in Armagh could effect funding for other local schools.

"The educational standards achieved by the existing schools are excellent and giving the go-ahead for an integrated school will have a potentially disastrous effect on the controlled sector in the area," said the Newry and Armagh MLA.

Mr Kennedy said "natural integration" was already taking place in local post primary schools, and that he believed schools in the area would feel "undermined".

The first integrated school in Northern Ireland, Lagan College, was established in Belfast by parents group All Children Together in 1981.

There are currently 50 integrated schools in the province, 32 of which are at primary level.