How we educate our children reflects how we want our society to be. Our education system segregates pupils based on religious and class background. This is unsustainable if we want to build a more integrated society.

It’s time to end segregation. It’s time to invest in education. It’s time to end the marketisation of higher education.

The Green Party will:

• End academic selection.
• Ensure that all children have access to integrated education.
• Support the provision of Irish-medium education within the integrated sector.
• Increase investment in early years education. Introduce a universal provision of Sure Start.
• Increase the school starting age to six years old in line with other European countries. Introduce a flexible school starting age, giving parents the option to defer the start of their children’s schooling.
• Increase service provision for special education needs and require a statutory post-18 plan. Services to be put in place for all young people with special education needs.
• Introduce free nutritious school meals for all children in P1 to P3. Introduce mandatory cooking and nutrition classes to the curriculum.
• Encourage the development of GCSE and A-Levels in sign language. Introduce sign language classes in all primary schools.
• Require the introduction of mandatory, comprehensive and inclusive Relationships and Sexuality Education.
• Introduce stand-alone Critical Thinking Skills and Information Literacy to the curriculum of all schools to combat the rise of misinformation.
• Support the abolition of tuition fees, oppose any attempt to raise tuition fees, and continue to support the end of the marketisation of higher education.
• Support legislation to grant student unions legal and financial protections similar to those in the rest of the United Kingdom.