Killinchy: Parents offer to pay for school kitchen repairs

Packed lunches are being served instead of hot school meals because of the broken water pump

Parents have offered to pay for repairs to a kitchen in a County Down school so that it can serve hot meals again.

The head of Killinchy Primary, Chris Currie, told parents that the Education Authority (EA) "has no budget" to fix a water pump in the kitchen.

Mr Currie told BBC News NI that the problem was "a pretty sad indictment" of the state of education funding.

The Department of Education recently warned about 2023-24 budget constraints for school buildings and repairs.

The EA has previously said that there is a backlog for school maintenance and repairs in Northern Ireland of about £500m.

Killinchy Primary has about 330 pupils.

No hot water

In his message to parents, Mr Currie said that hot school meals which pupils could pay for would not be available from Thursday.

Children entitled to free school meals will be provided with a packed lunch, and parents of other pupils have been asked to send packed lunches in with their children.

The fault with the water pump means the kitchen cannot run any hot water.

"The rest of the school is unaffected but it obviously provides a problem for the canteen staff, and how they prepare the dinners and clean up for the dinners afterwards," Mr Currie said.

"We're pretty sure the pump is going to need replaced, and if not going to need replaced it's going to need fixing."

"It's just a pretty sad indictment of where we've reached," said headteacher Chris Currie

In his message to parents, Mr Currie said that "we have been informed by the Education Authority that the water pump issue is easily resolved, however, there is currently no budget to order the part required due to the ongoing financial crisis facing education".

That, Mr Currie told BBC News NI, was because of a conversation he had with a maintenance official from the EA about the repair.

"We weren't sure whether or not we would get the part and if we were getting it there would certainly be a wait involved in that," he said.

"As a result the school canteen would have to stop preparing hot meals until further notice.

"Since I notified parents formally of this yesterday I've had two offers from parents to pay for the pump.

"One of the members of the Parent Teacher Association actually contacted me and asked me if there was anything they could do to fund the replacement of the pump.

"It's just remarkable in terms of the strength of the school community that people want to bail in and help."

'Dire financial situation'

Mr Currie said that his school was not facing a major problem by any means but the situation was illustrative of the budget pressures in education.

"In terms of the problems education in Northern Ireland is facing at the moment this is a fairly low priority.

"It's not business critical and children can bring packed lunches to school and the school can carry on as usual.

"But what I think it does do is illustrate that as school leaders we can no longer insulate children from the cuts and the dire financial situation.

"These things are now playing out on the ground."

Mr Currie said he had sympathy for EA staff who were having to make difficult decisions.

"It's not as if Education Authority staff are refusing to do this or are unwilling to do it," he said.

"They simply don't have the budget to fix the problem and they're being pulled every which way.

"It's just a pretty sad indictment of where we've reached."

The EA has been contacted by BBC News NI for comment.