Northern Ireland

Cuts risk bringing education system `to its knees'

Susan Parlour, NASUWT Northern Ireland president
Susan Parlour, NASUWT Northern Ireland president Susan Parlour, NASUWT Northern Ireland president

MASSIVE budget cuts, with even more to come, risk bringing an already struggling education system to its knees, a conference of teachers will hear today.

The NASUWT is holding its annual conference in Belfast.

High on the agenda will be workload, teacher mental health and stress, pay and conditions and education funding - particularly the level of resources for pupils with special educational needs.

Debts are soaring out of control with schools predicted to be £75 million in the red in the next three years. Hundreds of cash-strapped schools are careering towards serious financial difficulties.

The union said it was concerned that the Education Authority rejected three-year spending plans of all 1,112 schools in the north due to "the increasing number projecting a deteriorating financial position".

The total debt among schools predicted to be in deficit at March 2017 is more than £33m, rising to £75m by March 2019. Surpluses in schools are expected to fall from £29m to £9m over the same period, leaving an overall budget shortfall of £66m.

Members will be told that cuts, taking place against the backdrop of the RHI scandal, are "inexcusable and will have a devastating impact on an already struggling education system".

The conference will hear from NASUWT Northern Ireland president Susan Parlour, who is head of English at St Cecilia's College in Derry.

She said teachers are doing an amazing job in extremely tough times.

"We find ourselves in an educational landscape which is in crisis. The so-called fresh start agreement, rather than living up to the positive promise of its name, has brought stagnation and rot to classrooms across Northern Ireland," she said.

"Instead of hope, a tale of gloom and doom for education has been scripted by politicians, a narrative which NASUWT is prepared to resist, revise and rewrite.

"Decisions taken year on year by successive ministers for education to slash the education budget by millions of pounds are having a devastating impact.

"Last year £72m was slashed from the education resource budget, following on from a £66m pound reduction the previous year. The implementation of future further multi-million pound reductions to educational funding risks rendering a world class education system unsustainable, and bringing this already struggling system to its knees."

Schools are said to be struggling with larger class sizes, less money for books and basic resources and potentially wide-scale teacher redundancies.

"Political myopia and a penny-pinching approach to education are seriously compromising the futures of the voiceless and the most vulnerable in our society, the children in our care, who are now increasingly becoming the collateral damage of a punitive austerity regime," Ms Parlour said.

"Politicians need to wake up from their long slumber and realise that to continue to skimp on education is a false economy based on flawed logic.

"Our pupils should be prioritised, not punished for a financial crisis they did not cause. They should be valued and viewed as the future builders and guardians of peace and prosperity in a place where sectarianism, division and poverty have prevailed in the past."