Prefab funding used to build classrooms

ALMOST 60 schools are using funding for prefabs to build permanent classrooms under a scheme designed to give better value for money.

The initiative, announced last July by Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe, has resulted in the provision of nearly 80 classrooms, rather than prefabs which would have been bought with the same money.

The 59 schools had been approved for grant aid to purchase temporary accommodation, but chose instead to build permanent classrooms. As well as mainstream classes, the rooms being built also include a number of units for resource teaching with smaller groups or for teaching children in autistic units attached to some primary schools.