NI Education: £800m boost for 28 new school buildings in NI

Ms McIlveen said more than 25,000 pupils would ultimately benefit from new school buildings

New school buildings for 28 post-primary schools in Northern Ireland have been approved at a cost of £800m.

But Education Minister Michelle McIlveen admitted the schools would not be built "until the end of this decade at the earliest".

She also said that construction would depend on funding being available in the future.

Only 30 of 75 new school building projects approved over the past 10 years have been fully completed.

A number of MLAs (Members of Local Assembly), however, expressed concern over the timing of Ms McIlveen's announcement and the time-scale for the new schools to be built.

Ms McIlveen named 28 post-primary schools which can now appoint designers and seek planning permission for new buildings under the Department of Education's (DE) major capital works programme.

"These schools will benefit from a capital investment in the region of £794m, with deliverability subject to the level of capital resources available to the department towards the end of this decade and into the next," she said.

Long process

Ms McIlveen said that more than 25,000 pupils would ultimately benefit from new school buildings.

However, building a new school has to go through a long-term process involving design, planning and procurement prior to construction.

"In making this announcement today, it is my intention that these projects would be taken through to construction," the minister told the assembly.

"However, I should stress that authorisation to proceed to construction on any individual project will be based on the level of capital funding available at the point when a design is complete and all necessary approvals have been secured."

Sinn Féin MLA Pat Sheehan questioned the timing of the minister's announcement.

"On the cusp of an election, the minister has announced a capital investment for 28 schools at a cost of £800m with no delivery targets or timeframes," he said.

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"There are hundreds of schools across the north that are in bad need of investment to bring them up to the standards that our young people deserve.

"However without a plan or timeframe many of these schools will be left in limbo."

'Financial crisis'

"If I was electioneering I might be announcing some good news for my own constituency but sadly that's not the case," Ms McIlveen responded.

"These processes do not happen overnight.

"It could be a lag of six to eight years very much depending on the circumstances but it's important for those schools to be on that list today."

Education Minister Michelle McIlveen says construction would depend on funding being available in the future

Alliance MLA Chris Lyttle said he had "concerns" about why relatively few major school building works announced since 2012 had been completed.

"In the midst of a financial crisis for education does the minister actually have the budget to ensure that this funding at this scale will be delivered?" he asked. 

Ulster Unionist MLA John Stewart highlighted Islandmagee Primary School in County Antrim "which received a similar announcement over 10 years ago and still doesn't have the first sod dug in the ground".

Ms McIlveen was also pressed by the UUP leader Doug Beattie about when she would make a decision on the future of the Lurgan campus of Craigavon Senior High School (CSHS) in County Armagh.

Lurgan campus

The 650-pupil school operates on a split site with one campus in Lurgan and a larger one in Portadown.

The Education Authority has proposed that the school is in Portadown alone from September 2022.

Since opening in 1995, Craigavon Senior High School has operated on a 'split site', with one campus in Lurgan and another in Portadown

But Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon Council has objected to the plan to close the Lurgan campus.

Mr Beattie said that pupils in the Lurgan campus of CSHS "still eat their lunch meals between parked cars, where there are still safeguarding issues, and you said you would make a decision on their future as early as possible".

"Are they going to be bussed to Portadown purely because they were not given a grammar education?"

Ms McIlveen replied that she would make a decision on the future of the Lurgan campus of CSHS this week.