An ambitious plan to raise £20m for the cause of integrated education in Northern Ireland is being unveiled today.

Key goals of the Integrated Education Fund initiative include assisting 30 schools to transform to integrated status over the next five years. This fundraising drive is both timely and welcome. While life in Northern Ireland has progressed immeasurably in the last decade and a half, bitter sectarian divisions are still all too evident.

The “peace walls” across Belfast provide the sharpest evidence of this uncomfortable truth. Integrated education is certainly not a panacea. Despite what their critics claim, those who advocate it do not pretend that it is a magic cure. But it must surely be part of the answer. Achieving a shared future will always be an uphill task when the vast majority of our children are split along religious lines from an early age and educated separately.

There have been worrying signs that sectarian enmity is still very much alive in the youth of today.

Friction and so-called recreational rioting have continued at Belfast flashpoints in recent years, with teenagers often at the heart of the trouble.

This society has to face up to the deep-seated prejudices that still scar life here. We need to tackle the problem head-on and the education system is a pretty good place to start. The policy aims of achieving economic progress and attracting greater investment have been given top priority at Stormont.

Let’s hope our political masters understand the importance of breaking down division to our future prosperity.

They should always bear in mind the wise words of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg at the US Investment Conference here earlier this year. He said:

“The fact is, the best and the brightest don’t want to live in a city defined by division. They don’t want to live behind walls. And they don’t want to live in a place where they are judged by their faith or their family name. The historic cultural barriers between the two communities are slowly coming down, and the sooner they do — and the sooner the physical barriers come down too — the sooner the floodgates of private investment will open.”

Policy-makers must give all the practical support they can to the integrated education sector. The aim of encouraging existing schools along the transformation route is a worthy one, particularly in these straitened times for public expenditure. There are concerns that some transformation bids could be motivated by a desire to simply halt a school closure, rather than promote integration.

If that problem arises, it will have to be addressed. But it should not detract from the bigger picture. After all, why shouldn’t Northern Ireland take inspiration from events of the past week across the Atlantic and the message that change is possible?

Let us remember that Barack Obama’s historic election win was built on foundations created by the US civil rights movement. Integration was at the heart of this movement’s demands — including integration in schooling. Obama has been voted in on a slogan of “Yes We Can”. Stormont will be failing us badly if its message on integration is: “No We Can’t”.