School education in Northern Ireland

In the most recent full academic year (2021-2022), the region’s school education system comprised 1,124 schools (of all types) and around 346,000 pupils, including:

  • 796 primary schools with 172,000 pupils;
  • 192 post-primary schools with 152,000 pupils;
  • 126 non-grammar post-primary schools with 86,000 pupils;
  • 66 grammar schools with 65,000 pupils;
  • 94 nursery schools with 5,800 pupils;
  • 39 special schools with 6,600 pupils (specifically for children with special educational needs); and
  • 14 independent schools with 700 children.

By age of students – there are three stages of school education:

  • primamry schools: from 4 to 11 years old),
  • Secondary/middle schools: 11-16 years old)
  • High schools (A-level: 16-18 years).

Classification of schools by gender of students:

· mixed schools,

· schools for girls,

· Schools for boys.

(P.S. most schools are mixed schools)

School sectors by ethos, the source of funding and type of management:

  • controlled schools (formerly Protestant schools)
  • maintained schools (formerly Catholic);
  • integrated schools.

Controlled Schools

Controlled schools are so-called as their governance is controlled by the state (e.g. through the Education Authority as the employer of teachers) although schools are managed by their board of governors, which include representatives of parents, teachers and transferor churches (who transferred their control of schools to the state in the mid-20th century). Controlled schools are open to children of all faiths and none.

Many controlled schools were originally church schools – under the management of the Church of Ireland, Presbyterian Church in Ireland and Methodist Church in Ireland – whose control was transferred in the 1930s and 1940s in return for assurances that a Christian ethos would continue through collective worship (school assemblies), the teaching of non-denominational religious education, and representation of churches on boards of governors. The three churches have a role in education through the Transferor Representatives’ Council (TRC) and nominate around 1,500 school governors to the boards of controlled schools. In a more recent development, controlled integrated schools are those which have opted for a formally integrated status and therefore form part of both the controlled and integrated schools sectors.

The Education Act 2014, which created the Education Authority in the following year, was accompanied by a commitment by the Education Minister and the Northern Ireland Executive to establish and fund a support body for schools in the controlled sector. The Controlled Schools’ Support Council (CSSC) therefore became operational in 2016; its headquarters are in Stranmillis University College, Belfast. Over 90% of controlled schools are members of the CSSC.

In 2021-2022, there were 379 primary schools, 63 nursery schools, 53 secondary (non-grammar) schools and 16 grammar schools in the controlled sector – a total of 511 schools. These included 24 controlled integrated primary schools, five secondary schools and one nursery school with controlled integrated status, and two Irish medium schools. Around 147,000 pupils attended controlled schools (including 8,000 in controlled integrated schools), representing approximately 42% of all pupils in Northern Ireland. In terms of religious breakdown, 59% of pupils in controlled schools were Protestant, 11% were Catholic, and 30% were from other backgrounds.

Catholic maintained Schools

Catholic maintained schools have a Roman Catholic ethos and are maintained by state funding, although the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS) – established through the Education Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 1989 – employs teachers in the sector as well as representing its interests. The membership of the CCMS includes representatives of the Department of Education, trustees (Catholic bishops in Northern Ireland), parents (drawn from the local community on a voluntary basis) and teachers. The Catholic Schools’ Trustee Service (CTSS) provides teachers, clergy and others interested in Catholic education with resources, guidance and policies to assist them in their work, and highlights the Catholic ethose in education in both the maintained and voluntary grammar sectors.

In 2021-2022, there were 442 Catholic maintained schools – 355 primary schools, 56 post-primary (non-grammar) schools, and 31 nursery schools – with a total of 124,000 pupils, representing around 35% of all pupils; 93% of pupils in the sector were from a Catholic background.

Voluntary grammar Schools

Voluntary grammar schools are self-governing schools and generally of long standing, having originally established to provide an academic education at post primary level on a fee-paying basis. These schools are now funded by the Department and managed by boards of governors which are constituted in accordance with each school’s scheme of management – usually representatives of foundation governors, parents, and teachers and in most cases, representatives of the department or the Education Authority. The board of governors is the employing authority and is responsible for the employment of all staff in its school.

There were 50 voluntary grammar schools in 2021-2022 with around 51,000 pupils. The sector included 29 schools under Catholic management with 30,000 pupils and 21 under other forms of management with 21,000 pupils; 95% of pupils attending Catholic voluntary schools are from a Catholic background and 57% of pupils attending other voluntary schools are from a Protestant background. The Governing Bodies Association represents the interests of voluntary grammar schools.

Integrated Schools

Grant-maintained integrated schools are those which have been established by the voluntary efforts of parents (such as the first formally integrated school, Lagan College, which was founded in 1981). Controlled integrated schools are controlled schools which have opted to have integrated status following a transformation process with the approval of parents. While parents, rather than churches, took the initiative in the development of grant-maintained integrated schools, the older controlled integrated schools (for example, those built in the 1930s and 1940s) were founded by Protestant churches before their transfer to the state in the mid-20th century.

The Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education (NICIE), a voluntary organisation, promotes, develops and supports integrated education, through the medium of English. The Integrated Education Fund (IEF) is a trust fund for the development and growth of integrated education in the region in response to parental demand. The IEF seeks to bridge the financial gap between starting integrated schools and securing full government funding and support. It was established in 1998 with funding from EU Structural Funds, the Department of Education, the Nuffield Foundation, and the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. The IEF financially supports the establishment of new schools, the growth of existing schools, and those schools seeking to become integrated.

In 2021-2022, there were 38 grant-maintained integrated schools (23 primary and 15 post-primary) and 30 controlled integrated schools (24 primary, five post-primary and one nursery); all post-primary schools in the sector are non-grammar. There were around 18,000 pupils in grant-maintained integrated schools and 8,000 pupils in controlled integrated schools, therefore around 26,000 pupils in 68 schools across the sector. The community backgrounds of pupils in grant-maintained integrated schools were 40% Catholic, 32% Protestant and 27% other, whereas the proportions for controlled integrated schools were 41% Protestant, 23% Catholic and 36% other.

Irish-medium maintained schools

The Education (Northern Ireland) Order 1998 placed a duty on the Department of Education, similar to that already in existence in relation to integrated education through the 1989 Education Reform Order, “to encourage and facilitate the development of Irish-medium education”. Pupils are usually taught most subjects through the medium of Irish, which is the second language of most of the pupils, whilst English is taught through English. This form of education has been described as Immersion education, and is now firmly established as a successful and effective form of bilingual education. It aims to develop a high standard of language competence in the immersion language (Irish) across the curriculum, but must also, and can, ensure a similar level of achievement in the first language (in this case, usually English) as that reached by pupils attending monolingual English medium schools.

Irish-medium schools, or Gaelscoileanna, are able to achieve grant-aided status, under the same procedures as other schools, by applying for maintained status. In addition to free-standing schools, Irish language medium education can be provided through units in existing schools; unit arrangements permit Irish-language-medium education to be supported where a free-standing school would not be viable. A unit may operate as a self-contained provision under the management of a host English-medium school and usually on the same site. In addition to this, there are two independent schools teaching through the medium of Irish. These are Gaelscoil Ghleann Darach in Crumlin and Gaelscoil na Daróige in Derry City.

Comhairle na Gaelscolaíochta (CnaG) is the representative body for Irish-medium education, and was set up in 2000 by the Department of Education to promote, facilitate and encourage Irish-medium education. One of CnaG’s central objectives is to seek to extend the availability of Irish-medium education to parents who wish to avail of it for their children, and it is supported in this role by Iontaobhas na Gaelscolaíochta (the trust fund for Irish-medium education.

In 2021-2022, there were 25 primary schools and two post-primary schools (both non-grammar) in the Irish-medium maintained sector, with around 5,000 pupils, and 10 Irish-medium units, educating around 1,500 pupils; pre-school education is also available in the Irish language.

Useful links:

ENG:

School Inspection reports: https://www.etini.gov.uk/publications/type/inspectionreports

Institution Search: http://apps.education-ni.gov.uk/appinstitutes/

UKR:

School Inspection reports:  https://www-etini-gov-uk.translate.goog/publications/type/inspectionreports/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=uk&_x_tr_hl=en