PUPILS in East Ayrshire will benefit from a cash injection of more than £2million which has been earmarked for both primary and secondary schools.

As they seek to narrow the attainment gap, between those in deprived areas and more well-to-do parts, £998,917 will go to primary schools, and £1,038,406 for secondaries.

The funding will set up projects to improve literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing in nine council areas, which have been classed as ‘challenge’ authorities.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney said: “The funding I have confirmed for East Ayrshire is part of the additional £750 million we will make available over five years to support schools to close the attainment gap.”

Challenge authorities are Glasgow, Dundee, Inverclyde, West Dunbartonshire, North Ayrshire, Clackmannanshire, North Lanarkshire, East Ayrshire and Renfrewshire.

Alan Ward, East Ayrshire Council’s Head of Education said: “We are committed to offering every young person in East Ayrshire the best possible education in state of the art schools and facilities to help them succeed and move to positive destinations when they leave school.

“Much needs to be done to narrow the attainment gap between pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds and those from more affluent areas and the Scottish Government’s announcement of additional funding to help us tackle this inequality is especially welcome.

“The additional attainment challenge funding and support this attracts will help us implement our strategies for closing the attainment gap across East Ayrshire schools and communities, provide further opportunities for us to build on current attainment successes and boost the quality of experience for our children and young people in education.

“Education is at the core of our capital investment programme and, over the next 10 years, we’ll be investing hundreds of millions of pounds into building new schools, extending, modernising and refurbishing existing schools and early education centres.

“Recognising the need for learning in a digital age, we’re already developing the school ICT network offering state of the art digital learning facilities and improved networking for pupils, parents and teachers.”