A review of integrated education setting out how the sector can be developed for the future is to be completed by the summer.
Education minister John O'Dowd has appointed Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education president Colm Cavanagh and Professor Margaret Topping from Queen's University Belfast to undertake the study.
Government focus in recent years has moved away from promoting integrated education in favour of shared models, although in recent months some schools have been given approval to transform from state to integrated status.
Typically, shared education involves neighbouring Catholic and non-Catholic schools working together. Integrated schools educate Catholic and Protestant children under one roof.
The review team has been asked to undertake a strategic assessment across all aspects of planning and development of integrated education and produce proposals and recommendations to support the effective planning, growth and development of a more integrated system.
Mr O'Dowd said the growth of the sector had slowed in the last decade. He said the review was an opportunity to examine how to support the effective planning, growth and development of integrated education in the twenty-first century.
"It will also look at how we develop a more integrated education system in its widest sense, which will bring together increasing numbers of Protestant and Catholic pupils within all of our schools," he said.
"Critically, the review will consider how the potential capital investment from the Stormont House Agreement for shared and integrated education can be best used to increase the numbers of Catholic and Protestant pupils being educated together."
