Interface schools funding stopped
Irish News
**Via Newshound
By Simon Doyle Education Correspondent
03/05/08
A scheme giving extra money to schools in interface areas has been cancelled and will not be reinstated, the Department of Education has said.
Schools in areas of conflict have been receiving additional resources since the loyalist protest at Holy Cross Girls’ Primary School in 2001 but the fund has now been wound up.
Its loss is a further blow to primaries that are also facing huge cuts to an extended schools scheme.
The multi-million-pound scheme to open schools beyond their traditional day is being cut in half – to the detriment of up to 120,000 pupils in poor areas.
Yesterday principals’ groups representing the Shankill and north Belfast areas told the assembly education committee that the loss of interface programme funding meant they were left struggling.
Betty Orr, principal of Edenbrooke PS, said deprivation in the Shankill caused some youngsters to contemplate suicide and that some seven and eight-year-olds already had alcohol problems.
“Our concern is for all of the children of the area because they are so needy,” Ms Orr said yesterday.
A Department of Education spokesman said, however, that the fund would not be reinstated.
“Taking account of the current nature of community problems in Belfast, the department considers interface support programmes are no longer entirely appropriate,” he said.
“In these circumstances, the department does not intend to fund another interface support programme but will continue to foster and promote better educational opportunities for all our young people in accordance with its budget priorities.”
