Cuts to funding for a GCSE course which teaches students road safety have been reversed.
Grants to schools to teach a GCSE in Motor Vehicle and Road User Studies were axed in 2023, alongside other swingeing cuts to education.
The Department for Instructure (DfI) had stopped providing textbooks and funding for schools to buy a moped to teach the subject.
But the Infrastructure Minister John O'Dowd has now reinstated the funding.
O'Dowd made the announcement during a visit to St Mark's High School in Warrenpoint, one of almost 60 schools in Northern Ireland to offer it for GCSE.
He said that young drivers were more likely to be affected by serious road traffic collisions and the GCSE helped "to prepare young people for making good road safety decisions".
As part of the GCSE pupils learn how to drive a moped.
As well as taking written exams, they are marked on how well and safely they can check and ride it.
Run by the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA), the GCSE also teaches pupils about maintaining motor vehicles as well as the highway code and how to drive safely.
Eamonn McPolin has taught Motor Vehicle and Road User Studies at GCSE for more than 20 years and is the chief examiner for the subject.
He is hoping that the funding for the GCSE being reinstated will mean more schools will introduce it.
"The funding will allow schools to purchase a moped which is needed to teach the practical aspect of the subject," he added.
"It very much focuses on vehicle control and road user behaviour which is essential life skills for pupils as they take to the roads."
Mr McPolin said he had been concerned that the cut to funding to schools for the GCSE meant that "road safety would suffer".
"If you don't have the practical aspect of the subject it loses its appeal for the students," he said.
"It is a two-year course, and the content does very much focus on road safety situations.
"This is one way of getting that very strong road safety message out through this subject."
Funding to schools for road safety workbooks and calendars were also cut by DfI in 2023.