The Department of Education (DoE)is set to receive a funding boost of £14 million from the reallocation of money across Stormont departments.

£8 million will be used to facilitate access to school surpluses, while £6 million will be used to invest in special educational needs.

The Department of Finance announced the funding boost after it found some departments had identified a number of reduced financial requirements.

The news comes hot on the heels of the announcement by the Government of a Centre of Excellence for Literacy teaching to help more children from disadvantaged backgrounds master the basics of reading in primary school, along with a new £7.7 million curriculum fund to encourage the development of high quality teaching resources by organisations, including leading cultural and scientific institutions.

Latest figures from the Government reveal that the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and those who are more affluent in a combined measure of English, reading and maths has fallen in each of the last six years by more then 10% at Key Stage 2 since 2011.