An academic has said DUP minister Paul Givan could be accused of “maintaining segregation in education” following his decision to reject two schools for integrated status.
The comments from Dr Matthew Milliken come after the Stormont education minister turned down applications from Bangor Academy and Sixth Form College, the largest school in Northern Ireland, and Rathmore PS.
Dr Milliken told The Irish News that “those who chose to leave the current system unchanged (against the wishes of the majority of parents) do little to address the underlying causes of inter-community tension”.
Mr Givan has this week faced criticism for rejecting the bids after both schools had applied for integrated status from September 2025 following majority parental support.
According to Department of Education documents, officials had recommended both schools transform, but the minister decided not to approve, stating there was not enough evidence there would be enough Catholic pupils at each school for it to provide integrated education.
Dr Milliken, who has previously carried out academic research for Ulster University into segregation of schools in Northern Ireland, said he is “bewildered and concerned by the minister for education’s decision to arbitrarily reject the proposals”.
“The decision could be considered to be undemocratic, potentially hypocritical and may even be lacking the legal justification claimed,” he said.
Dr Milliken said he believed it is “troubling for the whole of the civil service that the minister has seemingly no faith in the considered, informed, professional decisions made by those appointed to inform and advise him”.
“Were the minister to have accepted the expressed choice of parents and the advice given, unmet demand for integrated post-primary places in Ards and North Down would have been met without any additional expenditure,” he said.
“Such a decision would have been in keeping with Article 64 of the 1989 Education Act to ‘encourage and facilitate’ Integrated Education as well as Article 5 of the Integrated Education Act 2022.”
Dr Milliken added: “While the integration of schools alone can never address the enduring legacy of community mistrust and animosity, those who chose to leave the current system unchanged (against the wishes of the majority of parents) do little to address the underlying causes of inter-community tension.
“It could even possibly be argued that maintaining segregation in education - and thereby checking the development of cross-community understanding and cohesion - might be acting to the benefit of the DUP at the ballot box by embedding mistrust of the ‘other’ for future generations.”
A Department of Education spokesperson said the minister concluded that both schools were not likely to be able to provide ‘integrated education’ as expressed under the terms of the Integrated Education Act.
“There are three key elements that define what integrated iducation is; educating together those of different cultures and religious beliefs and of none, including reasonable numbers of both Protestant and Roman Catholic children or young persons; those who are experiencing socio-economic deprivation and those who are not; and those of different abilities,” they said.
“The minister concluded that 3% of Catholic children did not constitute reasonable numbers and it was not likely on the available evidence that reasonable numbers could be achieved.
“The legislative framework says that the department shall not approve a proposal 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 (of which reasonable numbers of Catholic children is a precondition).”
