Northern Irish education officials visit Blair

The principal of Ulidia College, a secondary school in North Ireland, and a governor on its regional school board visited Blair and spoke to classes on Friday, March 18. The officials were on a trip visiting high schools and universities in the Boston and D.C. areas.

Eugene Martin, Ulidia's principal, and Christine Harpur, a member of a North Ireland school board, spoke to history teacher Rondai Ravilious' fifth-period class and journalism teacher John Mathwin's sixth-period class about religious tensions and the integrated school system in the North Ireland region.

Irish School Official Visit 1

Photo: Silver Chips Online writers share the site with visiting Irish school officials.

Silver Chips Online writers share the site with visiting Irish school officials.

 Photo courtesy of Tiffany Yee.

Martin and his colleague, Harpur, came to America in search of better universities. The students in Ireland limit themselves to local Irish colleges or Sterling University in England, they claimed. Martin and Harper want to broaden their students' horizons. "We said, 'Wait a minute - America has great universities. Why can't you go there?'" Martin explained. He felt that their visit would help propagate that notion.

Irish schools require students to decide their career path at age 16, Martin said. "There, the university offers you a place at a specific area provided you get such-and-such a score on tests, and that's it," he explained. "Here, they say, 'Don't worry about what you're doing - what do you want to major in?' You can decide for the rest of your life. You all come out at the other end well-educated. What's beyond me is how you get there."

The enrollment procedures in American and Northern Irish schools go by the same name, but differ in procedure. Open enrollment in America means what it says, but in Ireland, "it's called open enrollment, but it's really closed. The Department of Education sets a limit on the whole school; otherwise, other schools would get upset that I'm taking their students," Martin explained. "I have 80 places to fill and filters to help me fill them." The "filters" include, in order of preference, whether the applicant attended an integrated primary school, whether they have a brother or sister in the school, whether they have a brother or sister who used to attend the school and whether or not they are the eldest child, among others. "We're usually filled by 'eldest child.' Even though you desperately want your child to get in, there's no space," he said.

Irish School Official Visit 1

Photo: Silver Chips Online writers share the site with visiting Irish school officials.

Silver Chips Online writers share the site with visiting Irish school officials.

 Photo courtesy of Tiffany Yee.

While the No Child Left Behind Act is gradually steering the nation towards an educational system based on standardized testing, the North Ireland Department of Education long ago established a national curriculum. "We have four times at which children are assessed - key stages," Martin explained. Students take tests when they are 7, 11, 14 and 16 years old, although the last stage is the one that determines whether or not a student remains enrolled in school. Students who fail the last set of tests are left to fend for themselves.

Martin approved of America's requirement for students to be educated. "That's what I like about the American system. It's compulsory to stay in high school. You're looked after," he said. "I like a system where you say, 'let's bring the children along.' I don't like a system where they say, 'I don't care whether you're advanced or mature, [that's] the curriculum.' Our [system] isn't quite like that, but it's close."

The religiously integrated system in North Ireland is working towards instilling a similar sense of nurturing in Ireland's schooling. "America makes you proud of who you are, and that brings understanding. I'm from one of the loveliest, but most segregated countries," Martin said, but he hopes to remedy that.

Martin also enthusiastically regaled students with a brief history lesson. North Ireland split from South Ireland in 1921, resulting in "28 different ways of organization for education," he said. "There's Catholic, Protestant, Irish medium, grammar, state grammar, integrated, et cetera."

Irish School Official Visit 1

Photo: Silver Chips Online writers share the site with visiting Irish school officials.

Silver Chips Online writers share the site with visiting Irish school officials.

 Photo courtesy of Tiffany Yee.

According to Martin, the split should have opened up opportunities for educational reform, but religious rivalries interfered. "It came down to we hate Protestants or we hate Catholics or we hate both or we hate everyone else," he explained. "There was sectarianism, violence, murder and everything else. In the 1960s, [America] had race riots. You had riots. We just had 'troubles,' killing each other, stabbing each other, annihilating each other, but we just thought we had a few wee troubles."

Following the split, each church set up its own educational system. Recently, however, a handful of religiously integrated schools have been set up, due primarily to parental intervention, said Martin. "The parents came together and said, 'Okay, the violence needs to stop,' and so we developed an integrated system," he continued. "Catholicism is a Christian tradition, Protestant is a Christian tradition - we're educating Christians together!"

Race was never as big an issue as religion in North Ireland, according to Martin. "North Ireland is 97 to 98 percent white," he said. "We have a small Chinese community, a small Vietnamese community and a small Jewish community. Anything other than those three is a handful."

The racially integrated American educational system fascinated Martin, who claimed that it better prepares students than the Irish system does. "You've got this little question mark, the essence of innocence - you form opinions," he explained. "In Ireland, all of a sudden, there's no longer a truth you'd be forming an opinion on; it's a collection of third-party retellings. You're now telling a story."