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Laura Lundy, School of Law, Queen's University
Belfast, "From Act to Order: the metamorphosis of education legislation",
in "Education Law", Liverpool Law Review XX/1 (1998), 63-93:
Education law reform for Northern Ireland usually begins at the point
where the legislative process for England and Wales ends. Once an Education
Act is enacted at Westminster, the policy process appears to kick-start
across the Irish sea with the Department of Education for Northern Ireland
formulating similar proposals for Northern Ireland. However, in Northern
Ireland there a number of forces at play which frequently result in the
implementation of distinctively different legislative provisions. A good
illustration of this is the Education Reform (NI) Order 1989, which
was intended to mirror many of the changes introduced in England and Wales
by the Education Act 1988. This article explains the differences between
the two education systems; charts the progress of three specific policy
initiatives contained in the Education Act 1988 (the national
curriculum, grant-maintained schools and open enrolment) after they
were proposed for Northern Ireland; and analyses the factors which contributed
to the transformation of the relevant provisions from identical twins to
close (or sometimes distant) cousins. The article indicates that a key factor
in the process of transformation was the influence of the Northern Ireland
churches within the education system and suggests that, when arguments
are presented in the language of discrimination and minority rights,
concessions can be wrought even from governments who are committed to a
particular strategy of educational reform. e-mail: l.lundy@qub.ac.uk
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