Joint Initiative To Improve Education Outcomes

Education ministers from Northern Ireland and Ireland have jointly launched the RAISE programme, a collaborative effort aimed at addressing educational underachievement and disadvantage.

Northern Ireland Education Minister Paul Givan and his Irish counterpart, Norma Foley TD, visited several schools in one of the designated areas today to officially announce the initiative.

The RAISE programme will implement a comprehensive set of educational support measures across 15 locations in Northern Ireland. By adopting a whole-community and place-based approach, the initiative seeks to create a more equitable and inclusive learning environment.

The programme represents a significant investment of £20 million (€24 million) over the next two years, with the possibility of further funding in the future.

The RAISE initiative is expected to have a positive impact on educational outcomes for students in both Northern Ireland and Ireland.

Officially announcing the programme, Education Minister Paul Givan said: "Educational underachievement linked to economic disadvantage, is an issue that has persisted for many years. The RAISE programme offers an important opportunity to look afresh at the issues caused by deprivation and to drive forward a whole community, place-based approach to remove the barriers to learning and educational achievement that many of our children and young people are facing." The RAISE programme will be complemented by two other initiatives. Students will be able to connect through the arts as part of the 'Bringing Live Arts to Students and Teachers' programme. Teachers will also benefit from the further development of the in-person and online forum for sharing education research in Ireland, known as the Teacher Research Exchange (T-REX).

The Minister continued: "This programme seeks to break the link between economic disadvantage and educational under-achievement – ensuring that the aspirations and outcomes of our children and young people are not limited by their background. My department will now continue to engage with key stakeholders in each RAISE locality through a series of workshops over the coming weeks and months – to identify needs, build the evidence base and bring forward strategic plans for consideration."

Welcoming the announcement of the RAISE programme, Minister Foley TD, Minister for Education in Ireland said: "I am delighted that the Irish Government has been able to support this initiative through the Shared Island Fund as part of our wider long-standing cooperation with the Northern Ireland Executive on Education attainment issues.

"The 'Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) Programme' in Ireland is supporting almost 260,000 students and has helped to address concentrated educational disadvantage in a targeted and equitable way across primary and post-primary schools. There are many lessons that we can jointly learn from working together with the Department of Education in Northern Ireland on how we can support education attainment."