Following complaints about a lack of support for immigrant students, especially for teaching English as a second language, P.E.I. has come up with some extra money.

'The new funding will ensure that we can provide the students with the language and social supports they need.'- Premier Pat Binns

The government will give the Eastern School District more than $216,000 in additional funding to support immigrant students attending Charlottetown schools this year. The money will be used to hire four ESL teachers, and to provide tutors, textbooks and assessment tools.

"We are very pleased to welcome these young people to our province and we look forward to the many ways that they will enrich our classrooms and communities," said Premier Pat Binns in a news release Wednesday. 

"The new funding will ensure that we can provide the students with the language and social supports they need to learn and to integrate into our school communities."

The province says there are 108 new immigrant students registered in Charlottetown schools this year: 30 at Colonel Gray High School, 30 at Queen Charlotte Intermediate, 15 at West Kent, 10 at Prince Street Elementary, with the other 23 scattered around different schools in the area.

Earlier this month the superintendent of the Eastern School District, Sandy Macdonald, said he'd ideally like to have enough money to hire six more teachers.

Following the premier's announcement, he said with the new funding for four more teachers, the board now has adequate resources to meet the students' language needs.