If the education system cannot see the majority, it cannot claim to serve it…

In January 2025, Education Minister Paul Givan refused transformation bids by Bangor Academy and Rathmore Primary School. Parents at both schools had voted overwhelmingly in favour of integrated status. Department officials recommended approval. Givan overruled them, citing an insufficient number of Catholic pupils.

DENI’s 2024/25 School Census tells the whole story. At Rathmore Primary, 268 pupils are designated ‘Other’—52% of the school. Protestant pupils number 228 (45%). Catholics: just 16 (3%). At Bangor Academy, 736 pupils are ‘Other’ (39%), twelve times more than the 60 Catholic pupils (3%).

The Minister looked at 1,004 ‘Other’ pupils across both schools and saw only a deficit of Catholics. Under the 2022 Integrated Education Act, transformation requires “reasonable numbers of both Protestant and Roman Catholic children.” ‘Other’ doesn’t count.

A Decade of Demographic Change

This wasn’t sudden. Ten years of census data reveal a systematic transformation in how Northern Irish families identify their children:

Rathmore Primary School (2014-15 to 2024-25):

• Protestant: 56% → 45% (–11 points)
• Catholic: 2.5% → 3% (stable)
• ‘Other’: 41.5% → 52% (+11 points)

Bangor Academy (2014-15 to 2024-25):

• Protestant: 75% → 58% (–17 points)
• Catholic: 2% → 3% (stable)
• ‘Other’: 23% → 39% (+16 points)

The pattern is identical. Protestant designation is collapsing at approximately 1.5 percentage points per year. ‘Other’ is surging at the same rate. Catholic numbers remain tiny and stable. At Rathmore, ‘Other’ crossed 50% between 2023-24 and 2024-25, creating a majority.

What ‘Other’ Really Means

When parents designate their children as ‘Other’, they’re rejecting Northern Ireland’s sectarian categorisation framework. Each ‘Other’ designation says: “I will not reproduce sectarianism through my child.”

‘Other’ includes families with no religion, non-Christian faiths, mixed religious backgrounds, and those who refuse sectarian labels. However, in historically Protestant areas like East Belfast and Bangor, the surge is primarily due to indigenous secularisation. Traditional Protestant families are increasingly choosing ‘Other’ for their children.

The evidence is stark: schools with the highest ‘Other’ populations often have zero newcomers.

• Strathearn Preparatory School: 83% ‘Other’, 0% newcomers
• Campbell College Junior School: 62% ‘Other’, 0% newcomers
• Belmont Primary School: 71% ‘Other’, 0% newcomers

This isn’t immigration driving change—it’s Protestant families themselves moving beyond religious categorisation.

The Cherry-Picking of Parental Choice

“Parental choice” is routinely invoked to justify Northern Ireland’s segregated education system. Catholic schools exist because Catholic parents choose them. Controlled schools exist because Protestant parents choose them. Integration remains marginal because demand is supposedly insufficient.

But this only works if we ignore what parents are actually choosing: 2,587 East Belfast primary pupils designated ‘Other’; 76% of Bangor Academy parents voted for integration; 52% of Rathmore families chose ‘Other’. These are documented parental choices. Yet they generate no institutional response.

Parental choice is cherry-picked. When parents choose denominational schools, their wishes are sacrosanct—invoked to justify maintaining separate sectors, protecting falling rolls, resisting change. When parents choose ‘Other’ or vote for transformation, that choice is ignored or actively blocked.

At Rathmore, four of nine governors are Protestant church representatives (Transferors), representing 44% of pupils. The 52% ‘Other’ majority has no designated governance representation.

A System That Cannot See

The 2022 Integrated Education Act acknowledges “different cultures and religious beliefs and of none”—but then requires “reasonable numbers of both Protestant and Roman Catholic children.” ‘Other’ is mentioned, then structurally excluded from the requirement.

This produces absurd outcomes. At Rathmore, Protestant and ‘Other’ are now virtually equal. Within a few years, Protestant pupils may fall below 40% while ‘Other’ reaches 60%. The school could eventually be refused transformation for having insufficient Protestants AND insufficient Catholics—despite serving a religiously plural community.

Defenders of the Act might argue its purpose was always to bring Protestants and Catholics together, not to recognise broader social trends. However, that defence rings hollow when the majority of parents in some schools choose ‘Other’. A framework designed for 20th-century sectarianism cannot comprehend 21st-century secularisation. The system can only think in denominational binaries. Religious plurality—even when it’s the majority—is structurally invisible.

The Legitimation Crisis

Northern Ireland’s educational segregation no longer persists because parents actively choose it. It persists because only choices that maintain segregation receive institutional recognition. Parents choosing integration—through transformation ballots, through ‘Other’ designations, through enrolment patterns—face systematic refusal.

This raises serious equality questions. Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 requires public authorities to promote equality of opportunity between persons of different religious beliefs, including ‘no religion’. When ‘Other’ pupils are systematically excluded from transformation frameworks, when their parents’ documented choices generate no response, and when the majority of ‘Other’ schools maintain denominational governance, fundamental equality obligations may be violated.

Minister Givan cited the need for “reasonable numbers” of Catholics. But 52% of Rathmore families have chosen ‘Other’. That’s not a minority preference—that’s a transformation in how Northern Irish families understand their identity.

The education system’s refusal to respond isn’t a policy failure. It’s a legitimation crisis: the system is losing credibility because it no longer reflects the society it claims to serve.

Rathmore and Bangor are just the tip of a much larger iceberg. If the education system cannot see the majority, it cannot claim to serve it.