17/05/2019

£600k Sports Funding Boost For Schools

Primary schools across Northern Ireland are set to benefit from a new £600,000 sports coaching programme.

Funded by the Department of Education, the sports and emotional resilience scheme will be run by the GAA and Irish Football Association. It will be launched for the next academic year, 2019/20, and has initially been funded for one year for pupils aged 7 to 11.

The sporting bodies will work together again to deliver coaching after a similar £1.3 million programme ceased in 2018.

Sinn Fein MLA Sinéad Ennis said it was the correct decision to restore the money and benefit thousands of children with primary coaching.

The south Down MLA added: "Sinn Féin vigorously opposed the decision to cut money for sports coaches and it is the correct decision to restore it as children and young people should not bear the brunt of Tory austerity."



(JG/CM)

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