The North's Education Minister, Mr Martin McGuinness, has announced that the huge backlog of building work in local schools is to be tackled through a £132 million investment package.
There are two strands of the package. The first includes 17 projects undertaken through the conventional school-building programme, representing an investment of over £62 million spread across 13 new primary schools, two new special schools and two post-primary schools.
In the second strand, up to eight secondary school projects - with a total capital value of £70 million - are to be taken forward under Public Private Partnerships (PPP), subject to value-for-money deals being secured with private-sector companies.
The investment plans are in addition to the current run-out of expenditure on continuing capital and maintenance work across the schools estate. Mr McGuinness also announced provision for a new youth centre in the Cregagh area of Belfast at a cost of £600,000, of which his Department will contribute £200,000.
Outlining his plans at Stormont yesterday, he said: "I am totally committed to improving the education infrastructure across all school sectors, but the number and cost of projects competing for a place in the capital programme far exceed the resources available to me."
He said he had faced tough choices in deciding which projects to approve for the first part of the programme. The key objective was to ensure the allocation of resources was based on educational need, he added.
A DUP Assembly member, Mr Sammy Wilson, accused Mr McGuinness of favouring Catholic schools. Ulster Unionist members of the Assembly's Education Committee welcomed some aspects of the package but also said there appeared to be a "clear imbalance" in the distribution of funding between schools.
Mr McGuinness dismissed all claims of bias in his Department's allocation of capital funding.