Socialist Youth call Free education now protest for Belfast Friday March 15

by aka clodagh Fri Mar 08, 2002 23:05

As a parent of a child from a mixed marriage, i had always envisaged sending my child to an integrated school, unfortunately over ten years ago that was not possible, integrated schools, being almost non existant, even cranmore primary was not open in those days, ie the early 90's. so my kids went to the local only multicultural primary school, the next best thing. In 1999 my son who had learning difficulties which were ignored by the primary school, and had been recieving grades D and E in his school reports, passed his eleven plus exam, getting a Grade B2. My son who had always seen himself as a D/E student of bad behaviour, felt that he had proved himself educationally, the primary school through what ever class prejudice had been wrong he was a B grade student, he could achieve educationally and pass exams, and also because of the high demand for integrated secondary schools, my son felt that to get into Lagan college, he had to pass his 11+, as Lagan college accepted all its grammar grade students, that is all the children that passed their 11+, whereas lagan college had turned away my son's catholic friends and other friends that had not passed the 11+. My son was put into the B grade stream when he got into Lagan college, but because of his learning difficulties, (dyslexia) which was again ignored by Lagan college, despite me warning them on numerous occasions about my son's dyslexia, my son could only get below the B grade class averages in his exams, and was then demoted to C/D stream. eventually things came to a head, and i had to go up to the school and threaten to write to the education minister martin mcguinness in order to get the school to provide my son with speacial needs help, which it did after hearing the name Martin mcguinness. I was not informed by Lagan college, that because my son was in the C/D stream or the non grammar stream, that he would not be able to continue learning irish, as only the grammar stream at lagan college are allowed to learn irish. I was not told at the open night that only the grammar stream were allowed to learn irish and i think that in many other schools, C stream is considered the grammar stream too. if i had known this and the fact that an establishment judge such as Basil mcivor was on the school board i would have not thought about sending my son to such a so called integrated school as lagan college.

by agnes sugar Fri Mar 08, 2002 22:27

what kind of example is lagan college setting its kids, allowing such a club such as the RUC club, after its association with paedophile Vincent mckenna, to exploit integrated education. who the hell appointed Q C Basil mcivor to the board of governors, no wonder lagan college is such a fuckin dump with basil mcivor on its board of governors. its time for working protestant and catholic parents to unite and demand rich bastard Basil mcivors resignation.

by biscuits Fri Mar 08, 2002 22:14

education overall is underfunded, but children of mixed marriages, and the children of working class prods and catholics who want their kids educated together, are being disenfranchised by the current integrated education system, espeacially at secondary level education. In belfast we only have Hazelwood college in north belfast and lagan college in south belfast. lagan college is terminally underfunded thanks to the non vision of its board of governors, consisting of establishment, middle class and unionist stallwarts such as Judge basil mcivor, no fuking wonder lagan college is situated in the arsehole of nowhere, stuck between hazardous electrical pylons with such fukers as basil mcivor championing its cause, no fukin wonder its a disgraceful shambles, becos the likes of judge basil mcivor want it to be, so the children of working class prods and catholics are given the minimum teaching facillities, whilst basil mcivor's own daughter, who attends lagan college is given VIP educational attention, Is it any wonder the corridors of lagan college are patrolled by CCtv, and lagan college is big on discipline, but low on actual educational provision for the children of the working class. with a person such as QC basil mcivor, who has never heard of socialism or communism, whose only vision for integrated education is a stern survival of the fittest one where, rich middle class prod and taig children are educated together under a capitalist grammar system umbrella enjoying all its privileges, whilst working class prod and taig kids are given second rate, second class educational provision and , must fight one another for the crumbs from integrated educations capitalist tables. thats why there's CCTV in lagan college, and why the minister for education Martin mcguinness was not invited to its 20th yr celebrations, whilst the likes of hanging judge Basil mcivor puffed himself up and paraded in his finery. So much for tolerance and integration. not to mention the RUC club run by lagan college, what working class prod or catholic has any trust in the RUC, its time for integrated education to wake fuking up, and move with the times. revolution is coming for catholics and protestants. the RUC whose champion, Vicent Mckenna, head of the SAVE OUR RUC campaign, who shared a platform an the city hall with ronnie flanagan, vicent mckenna was a paedophille who had close contacts with the RUC, surely its time for lagan college to drop its links with the RUC, since the companions and champions of the RUC are paedophiles.