Kevin Bissett, THE CANADIAN PRESS

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FREDERICTON - The New Brunswick government is reversing a $2.9-million cut to school districts and will reinstate services to school libraries and intervention programs.

Education Minister Roland Hache announced Thursday that the money will come from the Innovative Learning Fund - a program heralded by former minister Kelly Lamrock to provide grants for specialized education projects.

The initial cuts to the school districts meant the loss of about 300 library assistants, teachers assistants, and behavioural intervention workers, while close to 300 more would have seen their hours reduced.

"These resources contribute a valuable service to students by providing them with tools to help them develop their skills in literacy, numeracy or the classroom support necessary for struggling students to reach their fullest potential," Hache told reporters.

Hache has only been education minister for a few weeks, following a cabinet shuffle last month.

Brent Shaw, president of the New Brunswick Teachers Association, said having a new minister in the job made the difference in getting the funding issue resolved.

"Him being new ... I think it's a little different position, and I think he's been given the opportunity to make those changes and I believe he's going forward with them," Shaw said.

The teachers association and former minister Lamrock had been a loggerheads over how the education budget was being used, but Shaw said it was nothing personal.

"I do believe he's had the best interest of education in mind," said Shaw. "That doesn't always mean that you always get from them what you think is in the best interest of education. For instance, continuing the (fund) when you know there are very critical places that money should be."

The Innovative Learning Fund had already been reduced from $5 million to $3.5 million earlier this year.

Hache said the fund will still get $1 million, and projects already announced will be honoured.

Sandy Harding, president of Local 2745 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, said she's working with government to ensure all the job cuts will be reversed.

She said school children are the real winners from the announcement.

"Those innovative learning funds didn't benefit every child in the education system while the $2.9 million in cuts affected every child."

The Opposition has been pushing for the reinstatement of funding for support staff since it was cut.

Education critic Claude Landry said the decision was bad to start with and should have been reversed sooner.

"They put our students, our parents, our teachers and our school support staff in quite a stressful situation for the last few months," he said.

He accused the Liberal government of flip-flopping on a number of major issues, such as converting the university in Saint John to a polytechnic, eliminating a number of river ferry crossings, and major changes to early French immersion in schools.