Schools 'need £60m more per year to reverse cuts'

Schools in Northern Ireland need an extra £60m a year to reverse real term cuts to their budgets.

That is according to a briefing paper prepared for assembly members (MLAs) on Stormont's education committee.

It also reveals that the chair of a proposed independent review of education provision could be paid £1,500 per day.

The document from the Department of Education (DE) will be considered by MLAs on Wednesday.

They are due to question senior officials on the 2020-21 education budget, which, at over £2bn a year, is one of Stormont's biggest.

The department bid for an extra £427m in funding in the 2020-21 budget to meet the costs of increasing pressures, but received £227m.

The New Decade New Approach (NDNA) deal also included commitments like addressing financial pressures in schools and an independent review of education provision in Northern Ireland.

Previous research has suggested that Northern Ireland faced the highest school spending cuts per pupil over the past decade.

An increasing number of schools have also gone into budget deficit in recent years.

The DE paper prepared for MLAs said that "the assessed shortfall in the aggregated schools budget (ASB) is estimated to be up to £180m over the next three years".

"It is estimated that £180m would be required for schools over the next three years to reverse real terms reductions experienced since 2010-11."

An independent root and branch review of education in Northern Ireland was one of the key measures promised in the NDNA deal.

The deal said the way education is run at present - with a range of sectors and school types - is "not sustainable" and it promised a "fundamental review" as a basis for change.

The department estimates that review will cost £1.1m a year.

"It could be expected that a three-person panel would be required (chair and panel members) with support from a secretariat function," the DE budget briefing said.

It estimates the chair of the review panel will be paid £1,500 a day for 60 days work a year, up to an annual sum of £90,000.

Panel members would be paid £750 a day, up to an annual sum of £45,000.

However, in a separate briefing note members of the committee were told that the review is unlikely to begin in 2020-21 due to Covid-19.

It also said that other measures like a new framework for Special Educational Needs (SEN) and a new childcare strategy were likely to be delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.