In 2017 the Northern Ireland government commissioned a report to detail the development of Integrated Education, so as to decide on structures and processes to support the effective planning, growth and development of a more integrated education system, with a framework of viable and sustainable schools.

[1] The Education Reform (NI) Order 1989 provided a statutory framework for the development of integrated schools.

[1]: 21 The Northern Ireland Assembly passed legislation in March 2022 which ensures a duty on the Department of Education to provide further support to the integrated schools sector.

[8] The first Minister for Education to implement the Act was Paul Givan of the Democratic Unionist Party.

[9] He said that schools had been "let down" after 10 building projects had their funding withdrawn after £150,000,000 was reallocated in the Treasury's £3,300,000,000 financial package for the restoration of the power-sharing executive.

[11] NICIE’s Statement of Principles go beyond just the education of Protestant and Catholic children in a single building.

"[1] The four key elements of NICIE’s Statement of Principles are: Education in Northern Ireland is highly religiously segregated,[12] with 95% of pupils attending either a maintained (Catholic) school or a controlled school (mostly Protestant, but open to all faiths and none), both funded by the state by varying amounts.

[17] Then Monsignor Denis Faul criticised integrated education, insisting that Catholic parents were required by canon law to send their children to Catholic schools and also claimed the schools were a "dirty political trick" inspired by the British Government.

[18][19] Speaking out against integrated education, the Free Presbyterian Church described it as a "front for ecumenism and the secular lobby".

[21] He said that he supported the principle of the bill but urged the integrated sector to "get its head around" how it promotes "all identities".

[21] He also said "The reason why we have such a separated education system dating back to the 1920s - and I am no defender of the Catholic hierarchy - is because the Catholic Church took a very strong view of this ... That to keep Irish identity, Irish culture alive in a partitioned state, it would have to have its own education system.