Integration is suggested as placing of pipe bomb outside school condemned

The placing of a pipe bomb at St Mary's primary school in Ballymena, Co Antrim, has been condemned in forceful language at the Presbyterian General Assembly in Belfast.

The assembly's deputy clerk, Dr Derek Poots, described the incident as `utterly and totally indefensible and an evil in the sight of God and humanity".

He expressed outrage yesterday that such a lethal explosive device should be left outside a school. He wished that his "abhorrence, condemnation, and good wishes to all who study there" be conveyed to the principal and children at St Mary's.

His views were strongly supported by the assembly, while the church's education convenor, the Rev Jim McAllister, said he would visit the school personally to convey the views expressed.

The Rev John Dickinson, who ministers in north Belfast, recalled one instance in which RUC officers had to be present for weeks in a primary school playground to prevent fighting between children supporting two loyalist factions.

In this past week, he said, six children had been expelled from a primary school in Belfast for fighting associated with loyalist factions.

Proposing the board of education report, Mr McAllister said that the churches might need a push towards integrated schooling. He suggested that "any impartial spectator (either within the church or without it), looking at the unstable and uncertain circumstances in our land, must surely be asking why aren't the churches taking this one small step for Northern Ireland humanity".

He felt that the current segregated system of education, "while sometimes accused, most unfairly, of creating division, has on the other hand done very little to heal division". This was so "in spite of all the heart-warming and some thrilling things that have happened, especially since the Good Friday Agreement was signed".

But "there is still the reality of a desperately confrontational community; exemplified in the dastardly deeds of the last few days or, less dramatically but more verifiable, in the fact that the Northern Ireland Housing Executive has spent more resources in resettling intimidated people this year than in any other year during the past 30".

Integrated education, he said, would not settle the woes of ghettos and divided communities, "but does it not seem passing strange that the Christian family (within the human family) can't find a way in these circumstances to teach science and civics to the whole family together?"

He reminded the assembly that just 10 years ago the mainstream churches, "following a hefty prod from outside", produced a common curriculum for religious education, something it was said they could not or should not do.

"Maybe we need another push, either human or divine, to invade the area of integration," he said.

Seconding the report, Dr Robert Buick drew attention to the growing religious imbalance in the North's third-level student population. He said "many students from Protestant backgrounds [were] choosing or being encouraged to study in universities and colleges in England, Scotland and Wales rather than studying locally".

The situation might change in the near future, with more places being made available, he said, but he wondered whether what was planned would be enough to stem what had become a "brain drain".