COURSES designed to improve the financial skills of school governors have been shelved - because there is no money.
The Education Authority (EA) said it was putting off its accountability courses planned for this winter.
Northern Ireland's budget for 2017/18, published earlier this month, shows an increase in education spending of 1.5 per cent but principals have warned that this extra money is unlikely to have any impact in classrooms.
Now, the EA has said that due to "the significant delay in passing the Northern Ireland budget", and the resultant impact on education funding, it has postponed Financial Management and Accountability courses for governors which had been planned as part of a 2017/18 training and support programme.
It said this would allow EA senior management to consider the budget settlement and to engage in wider discussion through events with school principals.
It is understood that the courses will be rescheduled.
East Derry SDLP assembly member John Dallat said the situation had become "crazy".
"Courses designed to improve the financial management and accountability skills of boards of governors, presumably to save money, have been cancelled because there is no money. How dafter can things become?" he said.
"School principals are at their wits' end not knowing how they are going to continue running their schools, paying their staff and making ends meet and alas training intended to help governors improve their financial and management skills are put on the long finger.
"Of course all the training in the world won't solve the crisis in education but it might just improve the skills of the governors in understanding better how serious the crisis is and allow them to articulate their views better in exposing just how critical the challenges facing our schools are.
"There is no doubt that there is a train wreck coming down the line fast and among the casualties is education and how it is delivered and managed."
