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“This house believes that the time has now come for an integrated system of education.”

Ladies and gentlemen, I want to say at the outset that personally I totally support this motion. As a representative of teachers I would also say that, as a body, they will undoubtedly support any change that will improve the educational experience for their pupils.

Over many years teachers have witnessed at first hand the frustration of the constrictions placed upon them through insufficient funding in their schools. They have in many cases personally supplemented the resources provided to them through the school’s budget, they have very often worked well beyond the hours they could be expected to work and they constantly put the needs of their pupils before their own needs, or perhaps more accurately before their own families’ needs.

In the coming weeks and months we are set to experience some of the most swingeing cuts the Education Service has ever seen. Indeed, already the system is straining to contain the effects of a steadily reducing budget. Our Education Minister, John O’Dowd, has dusted down the Bain Report and signalled to us the need for radical changes to the way we currently deliver the Service.

The current duplication of services is no longer sustainable, so on purely financial grounds an integrated system of education makes sense. We no longer have the luxury of total parental choice. If we are to provide equality of opportunity and the widest curricular choice to all our young people then we must dismantle the old and bring in the new. But we cannot do so overnight.

Yes I agree that parents and local communities need to be involved in constructing the road map to take us from where we are now to where we need to be. They need to be involved in the Area Planning that will define the schools estate into the future. But equally I would argue that representatives of teachers also need to be included in that process at a strategic level as they understand the practical difficulties there might be in bringing together schools and pupils from possibly differing cultural backgrounds or ethos.

A lot of good work on sharing resources has already been done. In the secondary sector the Learning Partnerships that have developed in recent years have been the pathfinders. Up until now these Learning Partnerships have been allowed to grow organically – and that was probably right at the time. They now need to be carefully examined and all the good practice harvested to help us to progress.

The Northern Ireland Teachers’ Council is in negotiations with the Management Side – the Department of Education and the employing authorities – to draw up some formal agreements through the Teachers’ Negotiating Machinery that will form a blueprint for schools as they move forward into new shared relationships.

We recently presented a paper for consideration by Management Side that defines the type of issues that we need clarity around in moving forward, such as Service Level Agreements and employment of staff. Issues such as who is the employer of a shared teacher? What is the appropriate travelling time between schools. Which school takes responsibility for staff disciplinary and grievance matters? These along with workload, appraisal, resources and redundancy are practical matters which must be addressed so that collaboration between schools, perhaps leading ultimately to full integration, does not fall at the first hurdle because it runs into some kind of administrative mess.

These types of issues may sound rather basic when compared with the high level aspirations we have heard other speakers refer to, but believe me, unless we prepare a sound foundation based on good industrial relations practice then the future we aspire to may never come about.

I was very much heartened by the inclusion in the agreed Programme for Government of the funding for the Lisanelly Project in Omagh. Providing it proceeds to plan it could provide a model which might be replicated in other  areas. A shared site with separate schools is only a small step away from a fully integrated school.

I have purposely not said anything about the selection debate – those who know me are fully aware that I hold very strong views that segregating pupils on any grounds, be it socio-economic, academic or religious, is totally and utterly unacceptable.

But, as I said earlier, we have to accept that it might take some time to put all the building blocks in place to achieve the integrated system that is so much needed in a country moving out of conflict.

I would like to finish by inviting all of you who are interested in hearing more of  what teachers think  about this issue to our next Ulster Teachers’ Union Conference in the Slieve Donard Hotel, Newcastle on 23rd March next year. The reason I think you might be interested in coming along is the theme of the Conference – Building for a Shared Future. I think we need to be talking about building in the widest sense of the word – not just the physical resources that are needed, the actual buildings themselves, but building trust, building relationships and building a better future for the next generations of young people.

Thank you for your time.