Minister refutes claims of underspend on education

NIO Education Minister Barry Gardiner has rebuffed claims by the Education & Library Boards that they had to make cuts in their budget.

Earlier this week, several Education and Library Board members have resigned in the wake of cost cutting measures to reduce the level of overspending.

Commenting on the issue, Mr Gardiner said: "Under this budget every child in Northern Ireland will have an extra £87 a year spent on them. I want to assure parents that my whole concern is to improve the standard of education for their children and get more money into the classroom by making sure the Boards cut their bureaucracy.

“It makes no sense that each of the five Boards have separate finance, personnel and IT departments. I want to see them make savings by the joint commissioning of this back office work, so that more money can go to children.

“The Boards have complained that much of the £98m increase that is going directly to schools and Boards will be going in pay rises to teachers. The Boards may think that’s money badly spent, I do not.

“Last year our schools were plagued by industrial action because teachers felt un-rewarded for the excellent work they do. The Boards are acting as if this extra money is not delivering for children. I think that well motivated teachers are the best possible way to drive up standards in our schools.”

However, Education and Library Boards in the province have overspends amounting to a total of around £30m, despite Government figures indicating:

• This year’s Budget has seen schools budgets increase by £79m and Education & Library Board budgets increase by £19m;
• Pre-school places have more than doubled, giving children the very best start to their education;
• Over 350,000 children are benefiting from almost £210m of computer technology invested in schools under C2K.

Mr Gardiner also pointed to an additional £13.7m provided for special educational needs over the past two years, and a further £28m that had been allocated to Boards for the next three years.

He said that a further £57.8m will also be invested over the next three years to implement the Special Educational Needs and Disability Order.

(SP)