To ask the Minister of Education for a breakdown of the number of pupils participating in shared education programmes in the last four years; and how this compares to the targets set in his Department's business plan.

Due to industrial action by teaching unions, implementation of the Shared Signature Project commenced in 2015/16. In this period, 22,036 individual pupils participated in shared classes, of which 12,406 participated in more than one shared activity. Figures for 2016/17 will be available at the end of the academic year but the number of pupils is set to increase as schools progress their action plans.

Targets set in the business case in respect of increasing the number of young people participating in shared education are based on "maintaining the percentage of schools engaged in shared education on a whole school basis at 15% rising to 20% by 2018/19 and maintaining the percentage of schools involving more than one class at 13% increasing to 80% by 2018/19 rather than on individual numbers of pupils." This is measured through the school omnibus survey. Results of the 2016 survey are not yet available, but the 2015 survey showed that the percentage of schools engaged on a whole school basis being maintained with the percentage of schools involving more than one class rising to 67.6%. Given the impact of industrial action during this period these are encouraging results.