A merger of Fane Street Primary School and two others has been proposed, as Kevin Magee reports
Parents and children attending a south Belfast school could become the victims of racist attacks if their classes are moved to another location, according to the Council for Ethnic Minorities.
The children attend Fane Street Primary School, off the Lisburn Road, where 64% of pupils are from immigrant families.
They come from 22 countries, and one third of the pupils are Muslims.
The Education Authority is examining ways to amalgamate the school with two others in south Belfast.
It is looking at merging with Blythefield in Sandy Row and Donegall Road primary schools.
According to the Education Authority (EA), a merger is necessary because there are about 800 empty places between the three schools.
In its submission on the proposed changes, the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities (NICEM) said the merger "would present a high security risk of racist attacks against ethnic minority and Muslim families" if parents have to pass the Village area to get to a proposed new school close to or at the Donegall Road or Sandy Row areas.
NICEM head Patrick Yu said south Belfast had the highest number of racist attacks in Northern Ireland
Its head Patrick Yu said he was concerned that the EA had not carried out a risk assessment before proposing the possible amalgamation.
"The ethnic minority and Muslim families would need to walk to the (new) school... down the Donegall Road, through the Village to the new school in the future," he said.
"This also means they will have a high risk of racist attack and racial harassment on the way to and from (the new proposed) school."
Referring to loyalist protests at a Catholic primary school in north Belfast in 2001, Mr Yu added: "We do not want to see another 'Holy Cross' number two to happen in that area."
NICEM says the basis for its concern is police figures on racist attacks, which show the levels in south Belfast are the highest in Northern Ireland.
'Scandalous'
Former Belfast City Councillor Bob Stoker dismissed the claims by NICEM.
He said many of the pupils who attended Fane Street already lived in the Village area.
"It's absolutely scandalous that people are making claims of racism as an excuse to oppose constructing a new school," he said.
"There have been no racist attacks on the foreign pupils who are already attending Blythefield and Donegall Road. There have been no problems there whatsoever."
He said a lot of people's fears were based on "misinformation" and he felt it was "despicable" to "demonise" a whole community.
However he added: "Evidence does show that when there is a large influx of outsiders, school achievement does drop for a number of years before it starts to rise again.
"It is a reasonable fear that needs to be addressed by putting resources into schools."
For the most part, parents from all three schools want each one to remain open, and parents of children attending Donegall Road Primary have been holding protests against the merger.
Said one woman: "There's 10 different languages being spoken at that school. My child is in a school where the majority of them speak English and at the end of the day, my kids are happy at that school and I'm happy.
"We believe they get a better education at Donegall Road Primary School because they are getting more one-on-one from their teacher," said another.
"In Fane Street maybe three-quarters of a class could be new families and will get more attention than the one quarter of normal children."
'Education'
One mother insisted that a lot of parents, "won't send their kids to mix with new families, because they believe it will hold their education back."
Declan Boyle, SDLP, said it was important to work hard to change perceptions about racism in the Village.
There have been racist attacks, he said, but the blanket condemnation of a whole area is "ugly and hard to remove".
DUP MLA Jimmy Spratt called on Mr Yu to resign, describing Mr Yu's comments as "absolutely disgraceful".
"What he has done is very unhelpful to the ethnic community and he should resign because he is causing tension and that is absolutely disgraceful," he told Radio Ulster's Talkback programme.
So far, no decision has been taken by the EA as to what format the merger might take.
Options being explored include building a new school campus for the three schools or possibly amalgamating three sites into two.
Sandy Row Community Forum expressed "great disappointment" at hearing Mr Yu's comments.
In a statement it said: "Sandy Row Community Forum have been working with local community organisations ad political representatives over a number of years to develop a suitable proposal that would secure 21st century education provision in the South West Belfast for ALL children of the area
"We acknowledge that there have been tensions in the past in the wider community but that does not reflect the majority of the people's feelings in this community and any attacks have been strongly condemned.
"We have spoken to Mr Yu and we would ask that he retract his statement and move to work with us to ensure that the EA and the Department for Education deliver on what is needed for the children of this area."
