Education: Funding shortfall to tackle underachievement

A number of schemes aimed at children from disadvantaged areas are to be axed

The majority of the funding recommended to tackle educational underachievement will not be available in 2023/24.

That is according to a Department of Education (DE) progress report on the Fair Start report and action plan.

The Fair Start report was a landmark and wide-ranging five-year strategy to tackle educational underachievement in Northern Ireland.

But DE said that there was only £2.5m of funding for the strategy in 2023/24, rather than the recommended £21m.

The department has blamed its "extremely challenging financial position" for the cut.

"This will invariably have a significant limiting impact on the scale and pace of change that can be achieved," DE said.

Fair Start report

The Fair Start report was commissioned by DE, compiled by an expert panel led by Professor Noel Purdy from Stranmillis University College and published in 2021.

It examined the links between persistent educational underachievement and socio-economic background.

It said that DE should spend about £180m over five years on widespread measures to tackle educational underachievement.

Among its many recommendations were significantly more investment in early years education and that all children should also go to pre-school for at least four and a half hours a day.

It also aimed to help boys in particular who, it said, could face alienation from school, a lack of role models and lack a sense of belonging.

Budget cuts

But the education budget for 2023-24 was cut, forcing a number of schemes aimed especially at children from disadvantaged areas to be axed.

An independent report recently warned that "short-sighted cuts" risked creating longer-term problems for children, which would increase demand for public services in future.

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A just-published progress report on Fair Start from DE said its recommendations would face a "much lower level of funding" of 2023-24.

The expert panel had recommended £21m to pay for year two of the action plan but DE said only £2.5m had been allocated.

For instance, the panel said that funding for nurture units in primary schools should rise.

Nurture units are special classes in which small groups of pupils receive specialist teaching and support.

But the department recently cut the money schools receive to run the classes.

A plan to introduce more mentoring and counselling services to schools and youth clubs also "cannot be progressed," according to the progress report.

More expert advice to pre-schools to help them support young children with Special Education Needs (SEN) is among the other actions to be curtailed.

The department said, however, that a number of recommendations in the Fair Start report could still be taken forward in 2023-24.

'Disproportionally harming children'

In response, SDLP MLA Daniel McCrossan it would be impossible to tackle educational underachievement without significant funding.

He also said that the financial pressures at Stormont were "disproportionally impacting our children and young people".

Meanwhile, Alliance MLA Connie Egan said that "vulnerable children and young people are the ones paying the price for a lack of political leadership".