The Province of Manitoba has announced education funding for the 2016/17 school year. The funding is an increase of 2.5% which means an additional $32.5-million and brings annual education funding to $1.3-billion.

Hanover School Division Finance Chair Rick Peters says they received a 3% increase in funding which is less than last year, but an average amount. Peters says the funding usually comes at the end of January but it was a good surprise to hear it announced three weeks earlier than normal.

"It's been earmarked for literacy and numeracy and a little bit extra for special needs," explains Peters. "It's come out early and gives us a bit more time work through our numbers, although we haven't started to pull all of our numbers in to begin knowing how it will effect us."

Peters says they will start gathering information from the departments to formulate the budget and decide where all the funding will be allocated.