Speech to the NI Assembly
Mr Speaker/ Deputy Speaker
I want to thank Ms McIlveen and Mr Ross for putting forward this important motion.
This is a subject that, given the excellent promise and capability of our education system and the skills of the teaching profession, we should not be debating today. We should not need to debate this issue.
Underachievement in education has a negative influence throughout the whole of Northern Ireland but the statistics show it has a major depressing and dismal impact within the inner city areas. And I see the evidence of this every day in my constituency office or as I travel around my constituency.