PROPOSED budget cuts to the Department of Education will herald an unprecedented "classroom crisis" that threatens the ability to deliver viable schooling, a teaching union has claimed.
The Ulster Teachers' Union (UTU) said an estimated 2,500 job losses and budget cuts up to 8 per cent would leave schools unable to operate.
As part of planned cuts across most of Stormont's departments, the eduction budget is set to be reduced by £198m.
UTU general secretary Avril Hall Callaghan said her 6,5000 members were not prepared to see the future of the north's children and young people jeopardised. "One in five children in Northern Ireland lives in poverty -- the UTU believes that if this draft budget is imposed those same children will be going to schools that are in poverty too," she said. "Without a substantial cash injection for 2015/16 it will be impossible for schools to continue to provide the level of delivery of the curriculum that parents have the right to expect for their sons and daughters."
The warning came as the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) threatened strike action in response to "draconian" public services cuts.
ICTU assistant general secretary Peter Bunting said since 2010, £3.6 billion had been removed from the block grant paid from London to Stormont.
A series of public meetings is to be held next year to engage with the wider community ahead of industrial ballots.