NI education: 'Unsustainable finances' facing many schools

Most of the school budget is spent on paying staff salaries

A considerable number of schools are facing an unsustainable financial position, according to the Education Authority (EA).

An EA committee heard, overall, schools are expected to be £60m in the red in 2023/24.

Meanwhile, the head of Northern Ireland's biggest primary warned her budget will not cover paying staff.

Victoria Hutchinson from Strandtown Primary made the comments in a letter to parents.

The 2023-24 budget for education, which at about £2.5bn is Stormont's biggest behind health, was reduced by about £70m or 2.5%.

The overall budget to fund schools in Northern Ireland was also cut.

Each school is provided with an annual amount of funding from the Department of Education (DE), based mainly on the number of pupils it has.

The bulk of every school's budget is spent on paying for staff.

'Impossible budget allocations'

Strandtown in east Belfast is Northern Ireland's largest primary with almost 1,000 pupils.

It has one of the biggest primary school budgets, but that has reduced in recent years.

In 2021/22, for instance, the school received a budget of more than £2.8m.

But that fell to £2.75m in 2022/23 and has reduced again to £2.74m this school year.

That is despite some of the rising costs faced by all schools in Northern Ireland.

In her letter to parents, Ms Hutchinson said Stormont departments had been given "impossible budget allocations".

"How does this financially impact Strandtown?" she continued.

"We have been assigned a budget which is unable to cover staffing costs, let alone any running costs.

"That is why as a school we are unable to cover lost monies arising from pupils withdrawal from residential trips or music lessons, and why we must ensure day visits/events organised by the school do not create additional unplanned expenses."

'Serious concerns'

Some of the wider financial problems facing education have also been outlined in just-published minutes of an EA committee meeting held in September.

Members of the Authority's Resources and People Committee heard, for instance, that the EA may have not have the money to replace school boilers that have broken.

Some schools have already been without hot meals or water this term due to maintenance problems.

An increasing number of schools could go into the red due to budget cutbacks

As well as funding schools, the EA pays for things like Special Educational Needs (SEN), school transport, meals and maintenance.

It also funds youth services in Northern Ireland.

But committee members were told the EA is estimating that it will have around £220m less than it needs this year.

Overall, schools will have more than £60m less than they need to run and that is expected to lead to an increasing number of schools going into the red.

"Serious concerns were expressed at the projected deficit position by school sector for 2023-24," the EA minutes reported.

"This was showing an unsustainable position for a considerable number of schools going forward."

The money the EA has to build and repair school buildings is also estimated to be around £30m less than is needed.

That means that the Authority may need to pause building some classrooms for children with SEN "to ensure that sufficient capital was available for urgent schemes at school ie. replacement boilers," the committee was told.