Education minister to discuss future of education on shared island 

Education Minister Norma Foley will address today's Shared Island Dialogue. File Picture: Brian Lawless/PA

Representatives from across Ireland will today discuss the future of education on a shared island.

The Shared Island Dialogue series continues today, with a focus on cooperation and interaction right across the education, training, and research sectors. Educators, students, colleges, and industry representatives will discuss topics like education disadvantage, and access to third level.

Today’s panel discussions are the seventh in the series of discussions since they were launched by the Taoiseach last October. The day’s discussions will be chaired by Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin, and both Norma Foley, the Minister for Education, and Niall Collins, the Minister of State for Skills and Further Education, are due to address attendees.

According to its organisers, the Shared Island Dialogue series “provides a focus for people to engage on an inclusive basis on a shared future on the island, and a basis for broader and deeper discussions in civil society.” 

“The dialogues actively seek as broad a range of perspective and experience from civil society on the island as possible and ensure the inclusion of voices that have been under-represented in the Peace Process, including women, young people, and new communities on the island.” 

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A strong theme that emerged from previous discussions was that education systems can be used as a starting point for building “mutual understanding and reconciliation” through more opportunities for student exchange and cross-border interaction in education. This will be a key theme across the panel discussions today.

Among those due to speak today is Professor Ian Greer, Vice-Chancellor, Queens University Belfast and president of Universities Ireland. In his opening remarks, he will discuss how we could consider building mobility into university courses.

This is because North/South mobility tends to be low for students, despite the fact there are many opportunities and universities that allow students to appreciate the diversity across Ireland.

“It’s not just cultural issues that we can address through student mobility. We can also exchange ideas between the people of Ireland and Northern Ireland which can drive innovation projects that could propel the Island of Ireland towards the kind of knowledge economy and society that we all aspire to.” 

The Shared Island Dialogues are being organised by the Shared Island unit in the Department of the Taoiseach.

Further information on the Shared Island initiative, is at www.gov.ie/sharedisland