I’ve long felt the removal of faith schools and a fully integrated educational system could be the single most effective move toward significant change in the conflict/segregation between Catholic and Protestant communities, essentially through contact theory from as early an age as possible
In this regard I don’t really buy into the idea
of a need to maintain the status quo to allow Catholic families to continue to reap the benefit of Catholic schools performance.
@Kinsella I totally agree that parents don’t care about education policy at large and understandably only about the impact on their kid but this is precisely the reason why that thought shouldn be allowed to drive policy.
Also I don’t think integration would overly change that - there will still be high performing schools vs low performing schools as there are everywhere. I’d wager that largely once the dust settles the same people would benefit who benefit now and that centres much more on class and a host of other educational issues than it does on religion - though I would expect it still to lean toward the Catholic side.
The biggest issues I see are the short term pain and violence it would undoubtedly bring with it and also the fact that our towns and cities are still drawn out in so many instances by such distinct homogenous divisions that integrated schooling would be so neutered in many instances - a situation where an integrated school comprises 90% Catholic and 10% other due to the area it’s in, isn’t really going to make the impact you want.
I suppose that’s chicken and egg slightly because if you don’t start with schools how do we ever hope to break down that kind of community based geographic division.
I went to a Catholic primary and mixed secondary, some of my brothers and a lot of friends went to Catholic secondary. I think it can genuinely be compared to going to an all boys school then suddenly being confronted by girls, that’s how stark exposure to the ‘other side’ can be, particularly in areas that are particularly insular in their traditions.