Education
Unlike most areas of the United
Kingdom, in the last year of primary school many children sit
entrance examinations for grammar schools.
Integrated schools, which attempt to
ensure a balance in enrolment between pupils of Protestant, Roman
Catholic and other faiths (or none) are becoming increasingly
popular, although Northern Ireland still has a primarily de facto
religiously segregated education system. In the primary school
sector, forty schools (8.9% of the total number) are Integrated
Schools and thirty two (7.2% of the total number) are Gaelscoileanna.