Education Minister Jane Kennedy has announced plans to introduce ‘Education Action Zones’ for disadvantaged communities across Northern Ireland.

The £2.7 million funding package aims to aid schools which have been operating in situations where poverty, drug abuse, deprivation and violence are rife.

The Minister said: "The circumstances of schools like these are unique in my experience, and I believe that the government and its agencies need to make an equally unique response.

“From within the resources set aside for education in the recent draft Budget I will be able to make available up to £2 million a year for the next three years to make Education Action Zones work.

"In addition, I hope that Education Action Zones in appropriate areas can be given priority in the distribution of Integrated Development Funding which was announced by Ian Pearson in the draft Budget."

The Minister said that Education Action Zones will be child-centred, multi-agency responses based in schools and working with the community to improve services.

"There will be no single ‘model’, but a range of models based on what works," she said.

"They will not involve more bureaucracy, but will work with and complement existing successful structures, such as the North-West and West Belfast & Greater Shankill Task Forces and Health Action Zones."

Ms Kennedy said she believed that, with proper planning, the zones would make a full impact within 10 years.

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