Budget will leave 80% of schools 'in the red'

More than three-quarters of schools in Northern Ireland are expected to be in the red this year if they do not get more money.

That is according to information provided to the board of the Education Authority (EA).

Half of Northern Ireland's schools were already in financial deficit by the end of March 2024.

The EA board has been told that "if no further funding was allocated to schools in year, this figure would rise to 80%".

Keith Wysner is the principal of Whiteabbey primary school

Keith Wysner, the principal of Whiteabbey Primary School, said the situation was "very frustrating" and schools were stretched.

His primary school has about 420 pupils and despite the school being full, the budget is "quite low".

He has had to charge for some things, such as music lessons and school trips.

Due to rising costs some schools are having to generate their own funds to "cushion the blow" to pupils, he added.

Mr Wysner said there needed to be "a fairness of funding" from the government.

He said while the pay rise for teachers was a "really, really good" thing, schools have to fund this and they had not received a funding increase from the government yet.

The government needs to support schools or there could be a "generational deficit of skills and knowledge", he added.

Both teaching and non-teaching staff have recently staged industrial action in disputes over pay

The Northern Ireland Assembly passed its first budget in three years in May 2024.

But the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and the assembly's official opposition, the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), refused to support it.

The Department of Education (DE) received significantly more money than it had received in 2023/24.

The Department of Health got the largest share of day-to-day funding (£7.8bn) in the budget, but the Department of Education got the next largest allocation (£2.9bn).

The EA is responsible for spending most of the education budget and allocating funding to schools to pay their staff and running costs.

All schools have to submit information about their finances to the EA, and the budgets they are allocated are mainly dependent on the number of pupils they have.

Teachers in Northern Ireland recently received their first pay increase for three years, bringing to an end long-running industrial action.

But a pay deal for school support workers, including bus drivers, classroom assistants and canteen staff is not yet over the line - although progress has been made.

'Extreme concern'

Minutes of an EA board meeting to discuss the schools budget held on 20 June have just been published.

They record that members of the board expressed "extreme concern" at the impact of the money available to schools.

The board were told by an EA official that "at the end of March 2024, 50% of schools were in financial deficit and, if no further funding was allocated to schools in year, this figure would rise to 80%".

"This projection did not include the impact of any pay awards for 2024-25 on school budgets," the board were told.

Members also heard that DE's permanent secretary Dr Mark Browne had indicated that "achieving a balanced budget in the current financial environment was a highly challenging task that could not be done without unacceptable impacts".

Education faced a number of cuts to schemes to support schools and pupils in 2023, many of which are unlikely to be restored.