Funding for education '˜should be prioritised'

The head of a body set up to promote the interests of controlled schools has delivered a warning about the budget squeeze affecting schools.

By The Newsroom

Published 8th Mar 2018, 18:30 BST

Barry Mulholland, chief executive of the Controlled Schools’ Support Council (CSSC), told a roughly 150-strong delegation at its second annual general meeting this evening that a “significant transformation programme” is needed for schools.

The CSSC has previously said that estimates of the shortfall in the education budget range from £60m to £105m.

And in a statement ahead of his address at the Armagh City Hotel he said that “education must continue to be valued and given the priority it deserves across all government departments”.

The CSSC, funded by Department of Education, represents the overwhelming bulk of the roughly 550 controlled primary and secondary schools in Northern Ireland – which in turn form part of the roughly 1,160 schools in the Province.