Irish Govt Initiative To Invest £20m In NI's Education System

The Irish Government is to invest £20 million over the next two years in a programme to help address educational underachievement across Northern Ireland.

The RAISE initiative is part of a wider co-operation programme on addressing educational underachievement supported through the Shared Island Fund. Other strands incorporating creativity in schools and teacher exchange are still under development.

The investment is being made by the Department of the Taoiseach and the Department of Education in the Republic of Ireland

Welcoming the funding, NI's Education Minister, Paul Givan, said: "I welcome this significant programme of investment which will contribute greatly in our efforts to remove the barriers that prevent many of our children and young people from engaging in learning and further our work to forge strong partnerships between schools, families and communities.

"Schools are the bedrock of our education system and we must work in partnership with families, the local community and other influencers to ensure every child is happy, learning and succeeding."

The Minister continued: "The link between socio-economic disadvantage and educational attainment is not unique to Northern Ireland. It is common across the world, including the Republic of Ireland.

"The Shared Island Funding provides an opportunity for new approaches to be taken in Northern Ireland that may aid policy development in both countries for the benefit of all learners.

"This is an exciting opportunity for our respective countries to learn from each other's effective practices and this new funding will be used to support many thousands of learners across Northern Ireland for a long time to come."

The Department of Education (Northern Ireland) will have responsibility for the delivery of the funded programmes.

Work will now commence on the design and implementation of the programme with a formal launch in the coming months.