ALTHOUGH education minister for less than a year before the disintegration of the previous administration, Peter Weir has continued `in assembly absentia' to focus on the brief as DUP spokesman.
In July last year, he was warning that some schools could need to be closed and others amalgamated to solve long-term problems.
The 51-year-old from Bangor is taking back a challenging brief, with the education system in a more perilous position than it was when he left.
According to latest figures, 562 schools are now operating under a deficit - an increase on 239 in 2015/16.
All five main teaching unions, including head teachers, have been engaged in industrial action short of a strike since October.
Mr Weir will have to make good on the 'new approach' promise of a sustainable core budget for schools, before he can get to what will be the DUP long-term aim of refashioning a department which was controlled by Sinn Féin from 1999 until 2016.
