NIC-ICTU education trade unions call for restoration of schools budget.
As schools return after the summer break, the scale of the financial squeeze imposed by the Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris on NI’s Education system is apparent. What is additionally concerning is the inability of devolved government departments to use monitoring rounds to redistribute funding from other sections of the state to the Department of Education and the Education Authority NI as a result of the suspension of the NI Executive.
The Education Authority (EA) was provided with an indicative budget allocation by the Department of Education (DE) on 30 March 2023. This position was confirmed in a final allocation letter on 1 June. The EA is currently forecasting a £201m funding deficit in 2023/24. Despite claims of profligate spending by Stormont departments, these shortfalls are the result of external inflationary pressures such as hikes in energy costs.
Speaking on behalf of NIC-ICTU’s Education Group, it’s chairperson Alan Law asked:
“Is the Secretary of State willing to suggest schools turn down heating classrooms, because there are other costs yet accounted for, such as the below inflation £1,925 pro rata payment offered to support staff on the JNC pay scale?
“So far, Unite and Unison have clear mandates for taking Action Short of Strike Action, and also have mandates from their members for strike action. In the coming weeks, GMB and NIPSA’s ballots will close. If they return mandates for industrial action that means that all of the trade unions operating in Primary and Secondary schools, every one has the backing of its members for continued industrial action, or even a new round of strikes. This joins the Teachers’ trade unions NASUWT, INTO, UTU and NAHT who are already on Action Short of Strike Action as a result of pay, workload and the cuts to the education budget.
“This should be no surprise. Constant cuts in the Education budget reduces the services provided, lowers educational standards, diminishes opportunities for our children and adds to health issues, including stress leading to mental health problems for low paid staff already facing intense financial hardship.
“The ‘punishment budget’ meted out to schools has implications which will make the atmosphere much worse over the autumn and winter ahead.
“This £201 million budget deficit already threatens 6000 FTE redundancies according to the EANI’s own estimate. This excludes any pay related issues such as a teachers pay award, national pay award (JNC), pay and grading or the EWO dispute.
“Officials in DENI and EANI are looking at options which are so unpalatable as to seem absurd, affecting school transport, free school meals, the provision of support for children with Special Needs, music lessons and road safety measures.
“This is damaging to a generation of children whose education has already been severely disrupted by the covid pandemic. Having gone through that experience, their schooling is being upended to make a political point about policy decisions completely unrelated to Education in NI.
“Last month, NIC-ICTU launched a major policy intervention on the state of NI’s public finances, Smart Money. The policy challenge outlined is in four stages, the first of which is that the Secretary of State needs to ‘Drop the Debt’. There is no legal or moral reason for penalising Northern Ireland in this manner. It is pushing people to take drastic decisions, such as unprecedented levels of industrial action, as there is no other outlet to express their frustration and genuine worries in the middle of a cost of living crisis.
“These actions, up to and including strikes on a scale never before seen here, are about defending the quality and scope of public services, and the dignity and security of the people who deliver them, from the bus driver taking children safely to school, to the school principal juggling impossible financial demands.
“Drop the debt. Restore (at the very least) the Education budget. Treat education fairly and with respect.”