DUBLIN (Xinhua) -- Ireland announced on Thursday it will launch 70 school building projects in 2015 to meet the country’s demographic challenge.
The projects will include the replacement of educational infrastructure and building new sites for schools.
"We are facing significant increases in the number of school-going children in the coming years,” said Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan.
According to the minister, the total pupil enrolment in both primary and post-primary schools is expected to grow by almost 70,000 pupils between now and 2017, over 44,000 at primary level and 25,000 at post primary.
Some 450 million euros (552 million U.S. dollars) will be spent on primary and post-primary infrastructure next year, with a projected expenditure on large scale projects of more than 280 million euros.
These school projects will include the building of more than 27,800 permanent schools, of which more than 23,700 are new ones. The remainder will be the replacement of temporary or unsatisfactory accommodation.
In March 2012, Ireland launched a five-year investment program for 2012 to 2016. The 2.2-billion-euro program gave details of the projects of 275 new major school buildings.