Schools’ £7.8m aid

Bid to close poverty gap

Monklands schools are to benefit from nearly £7.8 million in funding being issued to North Lanarkshire Council this year “to help close the pover ty- related attainment gap”.

The local authority is receiving the highest individual amount of the nine councils participating in the Scottish attainment challenge, which is now entering its third year.

It targets education initiatives and projects for Scotland’s most deprived children, prioritising “improvements in literacy, numeracy, health and wellbeing of children affected by poverty”.

A council spokesman said of the 2017- 2018 funding: “Some of the money will be spent on employing over 20 additional teachers, 12 family link workers and Rainbow Read literacy resources.”

Ne w s o f No r t h Lanarkshire’s £7,774,966 allocation from the £45m being made available this year was welcomed by Monklands MSPs Alex Neil, of Airdrie & Shotts, and Coatbridge & Chryston representative Fulton MacGregor.

They said: “This will ensure that schools where need is greatest have substantial additional funding for the coming year to improve literacy, numeracy, and health and wellbeing; it’s to improve the life chances of children and young people.”

It was announced this week by deputy first minister John Swinney, who said: “Improving the education and life chances of our children and young people is the defining mission of this government.

“The Scottish attainment challenge is providing £750m during this Parliament to tackle the poverty- related attainment gap; this announcement ensures local authorities [ can] tailor their plans based on their own circumstances.

“Along wi t h the introduction of pupil equity funding, this forms the backbone of our focus to target resources where they are needed the most whilst also empowering schools to ultimately improve the life chances of all young people.”

Isabelle Boyd, the council’s assistant chief executive for education, skills and youth employment, said: “We are delighted a range of initiatives led by North Lanarkshire’s education ser vice are already showing significant progress.”