Catholic Bishop of Derry Most Reverend Donal McKeown
The Most Reverend Donal McKeown made the remarks as figures revealed on Thursday that only 143 out of around 1,000 schools in the North of Ireland have at least 10 per cent of pupils from a Protestant background and 10 per cent from a Catholic background.
The Department of Education school census figures carried out by the Council for Integrated Education (NICIE) also showed there are no Catholic or no Protestant pupils in 287 schools.
The analysis from NICIE also suggested also suggested 70% of pupils attend schools where there is less than a one in 20 chance of meeting a pupil from the other main religious tradition.
An Integrated Education Bill is currently making its way through Stormont but has been criticised by a number of the main church-linked education sectors here.
On Wednesday, Bishop McKeown appeared before the Education Committee on behalf of the NI Commission for Catholic Education, and warned that the prospect of promoting one sector above others, which the bill would do in its present state, would be counter productive.
He said on Thursday that he “wasn’t surprised by the figures” from the department and said he was “very happy” to be involved in the conversation around achieving a “more integrated society”.
The Bishop said he “resented any notion” that Catholic schools should “have no place at the table” and said he had felt there was a suggestion the Catholic education sector “are recidivist, sectarian people who should have a dunces hat on and be stuck in a corner and told to mind our own business”.
“What I do note, this evening is just one more example of it, when it comes to integrated education the Catholics are the ones hauled up to be on the side of the baddies, that’s how it feels,” he told BBC NI.
“In other words, the problem is seen as being Catholic schools not anything else, not anybody else. If only Catholic schools weren’t here we would have a lovely little Northern Ireland, that seems to be the subtext.”
He added: “I think we really have to tackle the reality of a seriously divided society, of who is benefitting from sectarianism and I think Catholic schools are very keen to play a part in building a society that loves diversity, cherishes it rather than tries to abolish it.
“We want to be players in the future not dumped in the bin as a relic of the past.”
The bill, from Alliance MLA Kellie Armstrong, is “seeking to reform and meet the growing demand for integrated education, giving it the same support as controlled and maintained schools, allowing for its promotion and provision”.
Speaking at Stormont on Wednesday, NI Commissioner for Children and Younger People, Koulla Yiasouma, told MLAs: “The consequence of segregation is an inefficient system.
“The bill does not attempt to prioritise one sector over another but instead tries to level the playing field.
“The lack of promotion has meant the integrated education has not grown in the way it should have.
“There is this undertone of sectoral influence and we need to remove that.
“An integrated ethos will absolutely bring us closer and I look forward to the day we don’t have maintained, controlled, integrated in the future and we just have one system where the local school in the community is the best school for that child.”
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