Faith School - Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

In the early part of the 20th century, the majority of schools were owned and run by either the Catholic or Protestant churches.

The Protestant schools were gradually transferred to state ownership under Education and Library Boards (ELBs) responsible to the Department of Education, but with an Act of Parliament to ensure that the ethos of the schools conformed to this variety of Christianity, and giving the churches certain rights with respect to governance.

The Catholic schools are not owned by the state but by trustees, who are senior figures in the Church. However, all running costs are paid by the ELBs and all capital costs by the Department of Education. The employment of teachers is controlled by the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools, who are the largest employer of teachers (8,500) in Northern Ireland. The 547 Catholic schools teach 46% of the children of Northern Ireland. Teachers are not required to be of the Catholic faith, but all those in Catholic primary schools must hold a Certificate in Religious Education.

While the Protestant and Catholic schools were theoreticlly open to all, they were almost entirely of their own religious sectors, so starting in the 1980s, a number of so-called integrated schools were established.

As of 2010, the great majority of schools in Northern Ireland are either Catholic or Protestant, with relatively few integrated, a situation called "benign apartheid" by Peter Robinson, the First Minister of Northern Ireland.