HISTORY, politics and ecclesiastical interventions have created a divided, splintered and overly expensive education system, according to a new study.
Researchers said vested interests of churches and traditional political blocs needed to be reformed.
They argued that the Department of Education was bankrolling the structural, ethnic separation of school children.
The findings are included in the latest paper published by the Transforming Education project at Ulster University.
It has been developing briefing papers focussing on policies relevant to integration and separate schooling.
It has previously looked at issues including the `Catholic teachers' certificate', schools' religious education policies, separate teacher training colleges, boards of governors and the exemption of teachers from fair employment legislation.
The New Decade New Approach (NDNA) deal, the authors noted, said the education system with its multiple sectors and school types was "not sustainable". It also promised a review of the system which has not yet begun.
In addition to the Education Authority, the Department of Education is responsible for eight other `arm's length bodies' (ALBs) - five which are "pivotal in supporting the delivery of education in mainstream schools".
They include the General Teaching Council of NI, Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment, Catholic Council for Maintained Schools, NI Council for Integrated Education and Comhairle na Gaelscolaíochta.
Each has at least one administration building to service and maintain, their own management structure and governing board and is provided with a direct budget for salaries and operational costs.
"It is not inconceivable that the proposal in the NDNA document to place a duty on DE to "encourage and facilitate" education through Ulster-Scots could lead to demands for the creation of Ulster-Scots schools and, ultimately, on the grounds of ensuring parity of investment with the Irish language, a further support body," the report added.
"This proliferation of ALBs and sectoral bodies creates additional expenditure – the sums awarded to non-departmental public bodies (including CCEA, CCMS, CnaG, NICIE and GTCNI) amounted to around 1.2 per cent of the total DE resource budget in 2019-2020.
"It could be argued that the current configuration means that DE is, in effect, bankrolling the structural, ethnic separation of education.
"It is undeniable that the existing system for the administration of education in Northern Ireland presents a bewildering alphabetical word-storm of acronyms and initials."
The report concluded that history, politics and ecclesiastical interventions in educational policy had contributed to the development of a system that could largely be defined as being divided between state schools that reflect a British outlook and are underpinned by Protestant values, and faith-orientated Catholic schools that sustain a particular version of Gaelic-Irish identity.
"Appeasing and balancing the demands of these opposing denominational, cultural and national vested interests has contributed significantly to the creation of a system that is divided, splintered and consequently overly expensive," it added.
"It is evident that transformation of the NI education system needs to be ambitious and radical if it is to reduce duplication and to ensure that public finance is spent in the most efficient way. Such transformation will require, at some stage, that the historical legacy and enduring vested interests of the churches and the traditional political blocs are addressed. It needs also to start by tackling the organisational complexity that lies at the core of the system."
