Executive ministers will collectively decide how radical plans to employ more young teachers should be taken forward, an assembly committee has heard.
Sinn Fein minister John O'Dowd yesterday discussed budget matters during his final appearance before the education committee.
Schools are to lose £10 million in 2016/17, which unions fear will put some under pressure.
Mr O'Dowd told members he tried to protect schools budgets when faced with making cuts.
He said the overall Executive Resource Budget for 2016/17 had been reduced in real terms as a result of cuts imposed by Westminster.
While the outcome for education was challenging, he said, the position was significantly better than previously anticipated.
The education minister also discussed a plan to replace hundreds of older classroom staff with younger out-of-work teachers, which some have criticised as "ridiculous and unfair".
Since 2013/14, more than 2,000 graduates have registered with the General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland, of which it is understood about 1,400 do not yet hold a permanent teaching position.
Mr O'Dowd last year approved a £33m investment to help hundreds of recently qualified teachers.
More experienced staff hit out at the scheme, however, saying they would lose out because they earned their teaching degrees more than three years ago.
The scheme is yet to be finalised but Mr O'Dowd told members that he had now presented three options to the Executive, adding that he hoped ministers would discuss the plan today.
He said it was the job of ministers collectively because cash for the programme was allocated by the Executive from the Public Sector Transformation Fund.
The first option is to keep the scheme unchanged and allow up to 500 teachers over the age of 55 to retire and then employ teachers who have qualified in the last three years but have not yet had a full-time job.
The other options are to extend the scheme to teachers who qualified in the last five to six years, or open it to everyone.
"If we move to everyone, there are no savings whatsoever," Mr O'Dowd said.
The minister also told the committee that he was giving the Education Authority (EA) greater autonomy over how it uses its budget - a day after he asked for a review of a plan by the authority to cut the number of hours children with moderate learning difficulties spend in pre-school.
Mr O'Dowd asked the EA to urgently revisit a proposal to reduce provision for special needs nursery pupils from 4.5 to 2.5 hours a day.
"The ultimate decision is made by the Education Authority, but if we reach a situation that we reached yesterday, a minister is entitled to intervene. They have to be able to stand over the decision," Mr O'Dowd said.
