Education Minister has today announced a major
programme of investment to deliver innovative and community
informed approaches to raise achievement to reduce educational
disadvantage in Northern Ireland.
The programme, part of a wider funding package, represents an
investment of £20million over the next two years, with potential
for further funding.
Welcoming the investment, the Minister 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 investment in 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.
Welcoming the investment being made by the Department of the
Taoiseach and the Department of Education in the Republic of
Ireland, the Minister added: “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.
Notes to editors:
1. ‘A Fair Start' was published in 2021 by an Expert Panel
examining the link between educational underachievement and
socio-economic background. Its goals included drawing up an
Action Plan for change to ‘ensure all children and young people,
regardless of background are given the best start in life'.
2. The Panel advocated that addressing educational
underachievement ‘means placing equality of opportunity at the
core of everything we do.' A key area in the Action Plan is
‘Promoting a whole community approach to education'. This has a
“place-based focus that coheres the greatest concentration of
effort in those localities with the greatest concentration of
educational underachievement”.
3. The RAISE Programme – this is the lead policy initiative which
delivers Key Area 4 Action (iii) of the report “A Fair Start”
‘involving a whole community approach to tackle disadvantage
which will be strategic in scale and collaborative in nature,
mandating co-design and the building of authentic partnerships
between schools and communities using a place-based approach'.
4. The RAISE Programme will operate in specific localities across
Northern Ireland. These have been selected using objective
criteria based on data. These localities are within:
- Antrim
- Ards Peninsula
- Ballymena
- Belfast
- Carrick
- Coleraine
- Derry / Londonderry
- Dungannon
- Enniskillen
- Limavady
- Lisburn
- Lurgan and Craigavon
- Newry
- Newtownabbey
- Portadown
