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Tony Blair recently told teachers and policy makers attending a Sharing Education event at Queen’s University Belfast that he believes a better future lies in educating young people to respect different faiths and cultures.
 
In a video message shown at Queen’s Sharing Education Conference, which was examining the delivery of religious education in Northern Ireland, Mr Blair told delegates: “If we want to create a more peaceful and harmonious world then we have to start by educating young people not just to tolerate, but to respect, those of a different faith and culture to their own.”
 
The former Prime Minister prepared the message for delegates on behalf of his Tony Blair Faith Foundation which promotes respect and understanding about the world’s religions through education and multi-faith action.
 
At the Sharing Religious Education event in Riddel Hall, representatives from his Foundation joined experts from across the world to speak about the different ways in which religious education is delivered.
 
Mr Blair said his Face to Faith programme is “Linking schools the world over, from Brisbane, to Beirut to Belfast,” and that he believes it has “many things in common with a shared approach to religious education in Northern Ireland.”
 
He also conveyed to those attending the event about his hopes for working together, saying: “I really hope we can work together so that our young people are properly equipped with the skills and attitudes and understanding that they will require in the world today.”
 
Currently in Northern Ireland, more than 10,000 school pupils from 150 schools across Northern Ireland are benefitting from Queen’s successful Sharing Education Programme which was launched in 2007. Funded by the International Fund for Ireland and the Atlantic Philanthropies, it aims to find new ways of sharing education in order to create new curriculum-based educational opportunities and in doing so sustain contact among pupils from different communities to help promote understanding and reconciliation.
 
Speaking ahead of the event, Tony Gallagher, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Academic Planning, Staffing and External Relations at Queen’s, said: “Today’s event comes at a time when, following years of division and separation, interest in sharing and collaboration in education is growing.  The Executive’s Programme for Government has ambitious and laudable targets relating to the promotion of Shared Education, while on the ground, more and more schools are forming collaborative partnerships in order to improve the educational outcomes of their pupils.
 
“Tony Blair’s message today serves to highlight that the delivery of Religious Education is a global issue, and we are proud that the School of Education at Queen’s can continue to show leadership in this area by facilitating discussions around the opportunities for enhanced shared religious education, and shared education more generally.”
 
More information on the Sharing Education Programme at Queen’s is available online at http://www.schoolsworkingtogether.co.uk/

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