NORTHERN IRELAND - Education, health and culture
A complete education system
In 2002/03 there were just under 345,000 pupils in the 1,300 Northern Ireland grant aided and independent schools. The number of pupils in nursery and secondary/grammar schools in 2002/03 was higher than in 1992/93, whilst the number of primary school pupils has been declining since 1995/96. Over 19,000 full time teachers taught in NI grant aided and independent schools in 2002/03, just over 2 per cent more than in 1992/93. The overall pupil:teacher ratios in grant aided schools decreased from 18.2 to 16.4 between 1992/93 and 2002/03. Pupil:teacher ratios in Northern Ireland are somewhat lower than those in England.
In 2002/03, 72 per cent of 16 and 17 year olds in Northern Ireland participated in full time education/vocational training in schools and Further Education colleges, compared with 65 per cent of 16 and 17 year olds in England. Over recent years higher proportions of NI pupils achieved two or more ?A? levels and five or more GCSEs at grades A*-C than in England and Wales. A lower proportion of NI pupils achieved no GCSE passes.
Northern Ireland is home to two universities. The Queen's University of Belfast, founded as Queen's College in 1845 is mainly based in Belfast but has an additional campus in Armagh, which opened in 1995. The University of Ulster was established in 1984 and currently has campuses in Coleraine, Jordanstown, Londonderry and Belfast. In 2001/02, there were around 57,000 students studying Higher Education courses at NI institutions, an increase of 10 per cent since 1998/99.
Health facilities
In 2001-02, there were 8,419 hospitals beds in the region, representing an average of 5.0 per thousand inhabitants, a ratio that has been relatively constant over recent years. There were 1,091 doctors, 689 dentists and 480 opticians in Northern Ireland in 2002-03. In addition 1,774 pharmacists are currently registered with the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland.
Libraries and museums
The Ulster Museum (1892) in Belfast has a large collection of local and international art and antiquities. Also in Belfast are the Belfast Central Library (1888), the Queen's University Library (1849), and the Linen Hall Library (1788), a private institution with important collections of books, political materials, and newspapers. The Ulster Folk and Transport Museum (1958), just east of Belfast at Cultra, is one of the oldest and most authentic cultural heritage parks in the United Kingdom. The Ulster-American Folk Park (1976) at Omagh is another major heritage centre; it focuses on the experience of Irish emigrants to the United States.
The region's most distinguished writer is Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney. Northern Irish poets, dramatists, and writers have achieved distinction in Dublin and London, as well as internationally. Belfast, a provincial centre of heavy industry, lacked serious standing in the arts in the 19th and early 20th centuries. However, the Ulster Literary Theatre (founded in 1902) drew both Catholic and Protestant writers into the Irish revival movement that was originally inspired by Irish poet and dramatist William Butler Yeats and Dublin's Abbey Theatre. The annual Belfast Festival, begun in the early 1960s, is now a major cultural event. The more recent West Belfast Festival has a strongly Irish and nationalist flavour. The Grand Opera House (1895), designed by architect Frank Matcham, and Waterfront Hall (1997) are major arts venues in the centre of Belfast. Londonderry is home to the influential Field Day Theatre Company, founded in 1980 by a group of internationally known artists that included Heaney, dramatist Brian Friel, novelist Seamus Deane, and actor Stephen Rea.
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