Primary school sports coaching fund ends

Funding for schools sports coaching will end on Friday, Ulster GAA has announced.

The scheme, known as the Curriculum Sports Programme (CSP), provided primary schools with a coach from either the GAA or the Irish Football Association (IFA).

It employed more than 50 coaches and was run in over 500 primary schools.

Brian McAvoy, Ulster GAA provincial secretary, said it is a "serious blow" to staff, pupils and schools.

"It is bitterly disappointing to have to make staff redundant at this time but despite our best efforts to secure additional funding, Ulster GAA was left with no choice but to end our involvement with the programme," said Mr AcAvoy.

The Department of Education has previously said said it could not make further funding available due to "pressures on the education budget".

It also said it had approached other executive departments to find money for the programme without success.

The curriculum sports programme was introduced in schools in 2007.

The coaches provided up to an hour of soccer or GAA activity a week for each participating class of pupils.

In 2016-17 more than 36,000 pupils benefited from coaching, almost equally split between boys and girls.

Funding the programme cost the DE about £1.3m per year.

The sports programme had previously been reprieved in 2017 and earlier in 2018.

In October, 2017 coaches were issued with redundancy notices when the DE informed schools it was unable to continue the programme.

At the time, the department said cuts were necessary to ensure it remained within its budget and said it was not in a position to continue the programme beyond 31 October 2017.

The department did manage to find the money to keep the programme running until March 2018, and gave no guarantees that it would continue beyond then.

In March 2018 it announced that the sports programme would continue to be funded until October 2018.

In confirming that funding for the scheme would end on 31 October, the DE said it had invested £11m in the programme since 2010.

"The Department of Education recognises the contribution that the curriculum sports programme has made in helping to raise the confidence of young children and the support it provides to primary teachers in delivering PE," a spokesperson said.

"The programme was not specifically intended to support the development of either Gaelic games or soccer.

"However the pressures on the education budget mean further funding cannot be made available in 2018/19 without impacting other areas of the department's budget and increasing the risk of an overspend."