Mr. Cohen Taylor:

In 2021 I was elected onto the trustee board of the Northern Ireland Youth Forum, and later elevated by our members to the role of youth democracy representative, a role in which I am privileged to serve today.

Equality, service, respect, reconciliation - these are the core values of my school, Lagan College. It is Northern Ireland's first planned integrated school, set up more than 40 years ago to bring Protestants, Catholics and young people of all faiths and none together under one roof, to learn much more than just English, maths and science. These young people learn how to live alongside one another and how to embrace their own culture while also, crucially, learning how to understand and value the background and lived experiences of their peers.

There are now more than 60 integrated schools in Northern Ireland, both those that were created as new schools and schools that went on a journey of transformation from state-controlled or Catholic-maintained status towards integration. On my election to the board of the Northern Ireland Youth Forum, I prioritised and focused my personal efforts on integrated education, more specifically lobbying for the passage of the Integrated Education Bill, now the Integrated Education Act (Northern Ireland) 2022.

I attended a state-controlled primary school that was influenced by the Protestant faith. When transitioning to secondary school I came to the decision with my family that I wanted to attend a school that I believed would reflect the diversity of culture, traditions and political thought that spans across Northern Ireland. Recent statistics published by the Belfast Telegraphstate that more than 70% of parents want their child to attend an integrated school, yet fewer than 10% of children have access to a place in one. The integrated sector has the lowest number of empty desks of any educational sector across Northern Ireland and, furthermore, has some of the highest application numbers that exceed capacity.

When I was transferring to secondary school, I received a letter in the post from the Education Authority in Northern Ireland to inform me that no school from any sector to which I had applied could offer me a place. At the age of 11, the education system failed me in one of its most basic duties, to provide me with a place in any school I had applied to, due to oversubscription, increasing demand and underinvestment. In August, after appeal, I was able to gain a place in Priory Integrated College, a school where I was privileged to spend five years learning in an environment that enabled young people to accomplish more together.

The Integrated Education Act (Northern Ireland) has placed a strengthened and renewed statutory duty on the Department of Education and the Education Authority to "encourage, facilitate and support" integrated education. The overall political will is there and the funding is there, now what is needed is a fully functioning government in place to take action to create more spaces in more integrated schools, so young people no longer receive letters telling them they do not belong.

As young people, we have been asked to set out our personal views on the constitutional future of these islands, whatever the future holds; whatever arrangements are in place; the realities of the past; the need to build bridges; to have the tough conversations; agree to disagree, and to compromise. These are the crucial components that are required. The need to pursue reconciliation, to actively promote peace, will always remain.

I was one of the lucky ones. By chance, I was able to receive the kind of education that every young person should have access to. For many young people, the present education system can feel more like a postcode lottery than the supposed prioritisation of school choice that many local politicians claim to support. Young people need hope, opportunity and meaningful choice. Young people need access to education that prepares us for later life, gives us real social mobility, and not just a promise of better but the tools to build it ourselves.

I wish to end by posing a simple question: if education does not prepare you to interact with young people of other faiths, genders and cultures; does not encourage critical thinking and peer-led debate; and does not foster reconciliation day in, and day out in a post-conflict society, is it really education at all?