Primary schools are to receive grants of £500 each to promote sporting activities. Schools in disadvantaged areas will get £1,000.
Announcing the new grant at the INTO annual congress, the Minister for Education and Science, Dr Woods, said the initial cost would be £2 million a year. The grant is to be used for coaching, mentoring and equipment. Details on the new scheme will be sent to all primary schools.
A national sports co-ordinator for primary schools is to be appointed. He or she, with the help of assistant co-ordinators, will work to raise awareness of sports and healthy lifestyles in schools.
Dr Woods is establishing a national steering committee to oversee the project. He said Dublin footballer Charlie Redmond will chair this committee.
He announced details of 10 bursaries for school principals to carry out research and study at third level into the management and administration of education.
Meanwhile, he is funding 10 placements for special-needs teachers to travel to the US for a four-week period to work with their US colleagues. Four of these will involve Irish teachers being trained at the Lab School in Washington while the other six will be awarded to Irish teachers to spend time at innovative educational establishments in the US.
Dr Woods announced the establishment of a curriculum help-line which teachers can use to access advice on implementing the new curriculum.
The date of the implementation of the care-taking and secretarial support grant is to be brought forward to September 1st for schools with fewer than 100 pupils. The minimum grant will be £2,400. The moving forward of the date was welcomed by the INTO general secretary, Senator Joe O'Toole, as the first example of the Government moving beyond the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness. The Government was not required to implement this grant until January 1st, he said.
Mr Martin McGuinness, Education Minister in Northern Ireland for eight weeks until the Executive was dissolved, said the 11-plus was an antiquated selection system which he believed institutionalised educational apartheid between children.
"I, in common with most members of the INTO, am opposed to such selection and my party wants to see the 11-plus exam abolished."
The greater the commonality in courses, examination systems and qualifications between North and South the better use that could be made of resources and personnel.
He praised the growth in the number of gaelscoileanna, North and South, as "one of the encouraging aspects of the education system . . . I feel that Irish schools and gaelscoileanna have an important role to play in ensuring that the delicate Irish thread in the great tapestry of world cultures is maintained as strongly and colourfully as it has been in the past. This message underlying the importance of diversity has perhaps a particular relevance in the context of the current debate around our treatment of refugees and other ethnic minorities in this country."