- The Minister is largely correct about the law and his obligations – albeit legislation states that an application can only proceed “unless it appears to the Department” that the school will provided integrated education.
- However, that does not mean his decision was straightforward or ironclad, or that a different choice could not have been made.
- Ultimately, this process was about multiple judgement calls, including what integration actually amounts to and what it means for a school to provide integrated education.
UPDATE – 23 October 2025: This is part of a three-article series. On 23 October 2025, each piece in the series was updated to reflect a High Court ruling supporting the decisions made by the Education Minister with regard to the applications discussed below. Please see the end of each article for more details.
In early January, the Education Minister Paul Givan announced his decision not to approve applications for integrated status made by two schools in North Down, Rathmore Primary School and Bangor Academy & Sixth Form College, despite support from parents of children at both schools and the recommendation of his officials.
These decisions received plenty of publicity. On 13 January, a week after they were announced, the decisions were the subject of a debate in the Assembly as a Question for Urgent Oral Answer.
That debate contained several claims that FactCheckNI will examine over the course of three articles:
- The Minister said he is “legally prohibited” from approving integrated status “unless it is likely that the school will provide integrated education.”
- Alliance MLA Nick Mathison said an official report found that North Down has substantial unmet demand for Integrated Education.
- Sinn Féin MLA Pat Sheehan said the Minister’s own officials believed the applications should be approved.
This article focuses on claim one. Education Minister Paul Givan said:
“… I am prohibited legally from approving the transformation of a school to become an integrated school unless it is likely that the school will provide integrated education.”
RATING: ACCURATE WITH CONSIDERATION.
This claim is supported by evidence.
Relevant legislation states that the Department of Education “shall not approve” such a move “unless it appears to the Department that… the school would be likely to provide integrated education.”
The Minister heads the Department and makes the final decisions on development proposals from schools.
However, there is a lot more to this – including what actually comprises “integrated education” and what determines whether a school is providing that or not.
The Education Minister is not wrong about his own legal obligations – but how to interpret what it means to appear to be likely to provide integrated education isn’t a cut and dry judgement … and not everyone is convinced by (agrees with) the Minister’s decision and rationale.
Read on for a fuller explanation of the issue.
- Legislation
Article 92 (6) of The Education Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 1989 states:
“The Department shall not approve a proposal under this Article in relation to a school unless it appears to the Department that, if the school were to become, or be established as, a controlled integrated school, the school would be likely to provide integrated education.”
So Mr Givan is quoting legislation when he says that the law prohibits his Department (and him as its Minister) from approving a proposal if it is unlikely to provide integration education. Based on that, this claim is supported by evidence.
- Source
When FactCheckNI contacted the Education Minister about this claim, he wrote back to us highlighting the piece of legislation quoted above:
“I note that you have taken this sentence from the oral answer where I specified that I work within a very clear legal framework where Integrated education is defined in law.
“The relevant provisions are Article 92(6) of the Education Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 1989 and Section 1 of the Integrated Education Act (Northern Ireland) 2022.
“Full evidential material presented to me for decision, my decision and the rationale I provided in respect of both proposals are published on the Department’s website, accessible here: Development Proposal Decisions 2025 | Department of Education.”
However, it’s worth noticing that The Education Reform Order doesn’t say that the Department shall not approve a proposal “unless … the school would be likely to provide integrated education”. It says that a proposal shouldn’t be approved “unless it appears to the Department that … the school would be likely to provide integrated education”.
That extra “it appears to the Department” clause may be viewed as lowering the bar or widening the possible evidence base. And that extra clause is missing from how the Minister worded his claim in the Assembly chamber.
Regardless, none of this is the same thing as saying that the Education Minister’s decision on these schools was necessarily correct – that hinges on whether or not “it appears [that] the school would be likely to provide integrated education”.
- What is an ‘integrated school’ and what is ‘integrated education’?
The Integrated Education Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 includes definitions of the terms ‘integrated education’ and ‘integrated school’.
“Integrated education” means the education together, in an integrated school, of—
(a) those of different cultures and religious beliefs and of none, including reasonable numbers of both Protestant and Roman Catholic children or young persons;
(b) those who are experiencing socio-economic deprivation and those who are not; and
(c) those of different abilities.
An “integrated school” is a school which—
(a) intentionally supports, protects and advances an ethos of diversity, respect and understanding between those of different cultures and religious beliefs and of none, between those of different socio-economic backgrounds and between those of different abilities, and
(b) has acquired—
(i) grant-maintained integrated status, or
(ii) controlled integrated status
under the Education Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 1989.
(Note that prior to the new Act, “integrated education” was defined more simply in law as “the education together at school of Protestant and Roman Catholic pupils”.)
- What does this mean for the Minister’s decision?
The difference of opinion between those seeking integrated status for the two schools and the Minister who decided not to approve those proposals rests on the interpretation of “reasonable numbers” in clause (a) of the definition of Integrated education, along with judgements about certainly around the words “appears” and “likely”.
The Minister explained in his decision, as well as on the floor of the Assembly, and in media interviews (such as BBC Radio Ulster’s The Nolan Show on 31 January) that he believes that it isn’t “reasonable” – neither in the here and now, nor based on what he feels is likely to happen in the future – and thus declined the approval of the proposals.
He did this despite the fact that officials in his department felt that “on balance” although neither schools’ existing Catholic cohort quite matches the local area’s demographic, they could foresee steps being taken as part of the transformation process that would allow the school to meet the criterion.
We will explore that difference of opinion in more detail later. For now, suffice to say that this followed the Minister’s prerogative – officials advise, ministers decide.
- What is “reasonable”?
The new legislation does not define what it means to be “reasonable”.
What would be “reasonable” It was a frequent topic of discussion during the committee stage for the private member bill that would ultimately become the Integrated Education Act (Northern Ireland) 2022. In particular, the Assembly Research and Information Service (RaISe) referred to how it might be defined in their paper.
Asked about the providence of the phrase “reasonable numbers of both Protestant and Roman Catholic children or young persons” at the Assembly’s Education Committee on 6 October 2021, bill sponsor Kellie Armstrong MLA (Alliance) explained that the wording had been copied from section 2 (2) of the Shared Education Act (Northern Ireland) 2016.
Further questions about what was “reasonable” were asked at many committee sessions gathering evidence and scrutinising the bill throughout the 2021/22 session.
During the Assembly debate which is the focus of this check, the minister began to elaborate on what “reasonable” might mean. Unfortunately – for this fact check – the Speaker interrupted him before he had concluded.
Mr Givan: … I have to take such decisions. I appreciate that they will not always be agreed to by other people. When those decisions are taken, Members will ask, “Well, what is reasonable?”. Members are right that “reasonable” is not defined in law. If you look at the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education (NICIE), however, you see that it aspires to an intake of 40% Protestant, 40% Catholic and 20% other for integrated schools. If you then look at the —.
Mr Speaker: Minister, we have a two-minute limit. Perhaps you can wax lyrical at some other point.
Mr Givan: Sorry.
A few weeks later on the 5 February, the Minister was able to return to this topic in response to a question at the Education Committee:
“The legislation defines clearly that there is a requirement for there to be a ‘reasonable number’. That leads to the question of what a ‘reasonable number’ is. I looked at the demographic breakdown of the area and the school’s current enrolment. In Bangor Academy, you have just over 1,850 pupils of whom just over 50 come from a Catholic community background. I think that most people would say that that does not equate to a ‘reasonable number’ to constitute a change to integrated status.
“You also have to look at the situation historically. People are asking for a ‘reasonable number’. The Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education’s (NICIE) website talks about a ratio of 40:40:20 in an integrated school. There has been guidance in the past on that issue, and there was an old test applied by the Department that meant that you needed to have 10% enrolment from the minority community in year 1, rising to 30% after a number of years. Applying even NICIE’s ratio of 40:40:20, it fails. Applying an old test in the Department’s policy, it fails. I have looked at the statutory tests, and I believe that it does not meet those. Therefore, I came to the view that I did.”
The NICIE 40:40:20 ratio and the 10% enrolment target are historic measures that do not form part of guidance that transforming schools need to adhere to today.
During the 13 January debate, the Minister also twice referred to the ‘old’ 10% enrolment test for the first year of admissions as an integrated school, in one case saying:
“The Education Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 1989 is also relevant. It outlines a need for 10% minority enrolment in the first year of enrolment for the school to qualify as integrated, which it should then seek to grow.”
FactCheckNI can’t find any evidence that the Education Reform Order ever specified the enrolment targets. Instead, as the Minister suggested in his second reference to the 10% target in the debate, the source was “guidance that the Department held, which related to the 1989 Order”.
The Department of Education published a policy document – A Framework For Transformation – back in 1997 which is not available on the Department website and FactCheckNI has been unable to locate an online copy. However, we have seen a 2005 training pack (“Transformation: An Information Pack for Schools”) for Boards of Governors and school principals that explains:
“A Framework For Transformation … requires schools wishing to transform to demonstrate reasonable prospects of achieving, over the longer term, a minimum of 30% of their enrolment drawn from the relevant minority tradition. No pre-existing level of integration is necessary, but to ensure that transformation is well grounded from the outset, schools must attract at least 10% of their first year intake from whichever is the minority community (ie Catholic or Protestant) before final approval is granted.”
The bottom line here is that this decision is not based on something absolutely precise or specific. Judgement is involved. Let’s take a closer look at how that played out.
- Practical application
The Department of Education’s (DE) own contemporary guidance, which is from the 2017 publication Integration Works – Transforming Your School and is quoted in the DE report into Bangor Academy’s proposal, states:
“The Department will not adopt a one-size-fits-all approach to what defines a reasonable number of Catholic and Protestant pupils for a successful Transformation. The religious balance of transformed schools may vary depending on the local circumstances in an area. It is also important to recognise that some pupils might adopt multiple identities or choose or perceive themselves to have a shared or mixed identity.”
If the decision was challenged in court, a judge might rule on how “reasonable” should be interpreted in “not adopt(ing) a one-size-fits-all approach”. However, at the time of this fact check’s publication, there been no application for Judicial Review, although the County Down Spectator newspaper reported on 16 January that the Board of Governors “are considering whether this type of legal bid is the best choice, in the absence of an appeals process for unsuccessful integration decisions”.
The Minister’s decision compared NI Census figures with school census statistics to justify his decision on Bangor Academy on the grounds that the school’s existing Catholic cohort measured using the school census of 2-3% in recent years was lower than the latest Northern Ireland Census results for the surrounding area (11% of Ards and North Down council area is from the Catholic community, and 9% of Bangor).
“Given the community breakdown, extremely limited current and historic enrolments from the Catholic community and the availability of other well regarded options for Catholic children, including both Catholic maintained and other integrated options, I would anticipate that integrated status for Bangor Academy is unlikely to have more than a marginal impact on the number of Catholic children attending the school.
“Even on the most optimistic analysis, it would appear highly unlikely that reasonable numbers could be achieved. Examination and analysis of these issues and how they could be overcome have neither been set out in this proposal nor in any of the representations made from the advisory bodies under the provisions of the Integrated Education Act (Northern Ireland) 2022.”
On this basis, the Minister decided that the statutory test of “reasonable numbers of both Protestant and Roman Catholic children or young persons” was not met, and thus he could not approve the proposal.
For context, the chart below illustrates the most recent school census figures available for Bangor Academy (2023/24) and Rathmore Primary School (2022/23) and the NI Census figures quoted in the official’s reports as relevant to understanding the two schools’ catchment areas.
Figure 1 – source: Department of Education
In explaining his decision to turn down Rathmore Primary School’s proposals, the minister went into less detail:
“Given the absence of such evidence [referring to a lack of Expression of Interest Forms and a lack of evidence of practical steps taken to attract pupils from different cultures and religions beliefs and none], as well as historic and current enrolments, the demography of the area and alternative integrated and Catholic maintained primary provision available, I have to conclude requirements of S1(1)(a) of the Act have not been and will not be met if the proposal were to be approved.
“I am not therefore of the view that the statutory test of whether it was likely the school would provide ‘integrated education’ namely, the education together of those of different cultures and religious beliefs and of none, including reasonable numbers of both Protestant and Roman Catholic children or young persons has been met.”
As you’ll see in the third claim in this series the Minister’s officials recommended that both the two proposals should “on balance” be approved. They reasoned that it is not necessary for a school to be “integrated at day one” and believed that it was more likely than not (the legislation uses the phrase “would be likely to”) that steps could be put in place allowing these schools to build towards the criteria if transformation was approved.
The final choice on these two schools came down to a judgement made within the framework described. Regardless of whether or not you agree with the Minister’s logic and decision making, his description of his legal obligations in making this decision was accurate (albeit missing one significant clause).
Parts two and three will follow soon.
- UPDATE – 23 October 2025
Education Minister Paul Givan’s decisions were challenged in the High Court. These challenges have been dismissed, with the court refusing to allow leave to apply for judicial review in both cases.
On 15 October, the court asserted that the Minister was bound by the requirement of Article 92(6) of the 1989 Order and shall not approve a transformation proposal unless it appears to the Department that, if granted integrated status, the school would be likely to provide integrated education – meaning in particular the inclusion of reasonable numbers of both Protestant and Roman Catholic pupils. The ruling makes clear that what constitutes “reasonable numbers” in any application is for the Minister and Department to decide.
The full judgement can be read online along with a summary judgement. Following this ruling, the Education Minister provided a written statement to the Assembly.
