Derry man to oversee review of integrated education in North
Education Minister John O’Dowd has appointed Derry man Colm Cavanagh and Professor Margaret Topping from Queen’s University to undertake a review of integrated education in the North.
Announcing the review Minister O’Dowd said the growth of the sector had slowed in the last decade and the review was an opportunity to examine how to support the “effective planning, growth and development of integrated education in the 21st century.
“It will also look at how we develop a more integrated education system in its widest sense, which will bring together increasing numbers of Protestant and Catholic pupils within all of our schools.
“I am delighted to confirm that Colm Cavanagh and Margaret Topping will undertake the review. Their experience will be hugely beneficial in what is undoubtedly a substantial piece of work.
“Critically, the review will consider how the potential capital investment from the Stormont House Agreement for shared and integrated education can be best used to increase the numbers of Catholic and Protestant pupils being educated together.”
Concluding, Minister O’Dowd said: “The panel will of course engage with the integrated schools sector as part of the process. I have asked for the review to be completed by June this year.”
The Review Team has been asked to undertake a strategic assessment across all aspects of current planning and development of integrated education and produce proposals and recommendations to support the effective planning, growth and development of a more integrated education system in the form of a report incorporating its analysis, findings and recommendations.
Mr Cavanagh (pictured) is president of the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education.
A qualified solicitor and is currently the managing director of Foyle Waterfront, Derry.
He has previously worked in the areas of community and economic development, as well as voluntarily for the United Nations in Tanzania, East Africa.
He has been a trust representative on the NICIE Board since 2004 and has been involved in the promotion of integrated education since the 1970s.
He is co-chairperson of the Foyle Trust for Integrated Education and is currently a governor of Oakgrove Integrated College and Roe Valley Integrated Primary School, Limavady.:
Professor Margaret Topping is Dean of the Graduate School at The Queen’s University of Belfast and is closely involved in a range of research and good practice networks on postgraduate education and research.
She is Professor of French Literary and Visual Cultures at Queen’s and has previously taught at Oxford University, the University of Wales Bangor and Cardiff University.