AN initiative aimed at addressing underachievement and raising educational attainment levels for young people sitting GCSE exams this summer gets underway in Belfast next week.
A victim of an IRA bomber appointed to the board of the Education Authority (EA) has told how he was stunned to learn that taxpayers were paying the wages of the man who tried to kill him.
A convicted IRA bomber is one of Sinn Fein’s three new nominations to take a place as a member of the Education Authority in Northern Ireland.
Paul Kavanagh was sentenced to five life terms for blowing up Chelsea Barracks in 1981, and took up his position with the EA this week.
He was released from jail following the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
Mr Kavanagh, who is also employed by the Martin McGuinness Peace Foundation, will receive £8,800 per year plus travel and subsistence allowances after taking up membership.
An Army bomb disposal officer was killed in the 1981 blast as he dealt with another device at a restaurant in Oxford Street.