SDLP Education Spokesperson Colin McGrath has called on parties to commit to restoring power sharing as crisis in school budgets becomes critical.
Mr McGrath, a former youth worker, said that formal and non-formal education providers are being placed under immense professional and personal pressure to deliver more with less.
He said: “Education providers have been warning about the financial crisis in our schools for some time now. Many schools have been forced to cut subjects and after school provision in an effort to balance their books. The end result is that the education our children receive suffers. That cannot continue.
“A number of primary school principals are now making their concerns very clear. But the issue extends to nursery and post-primary provision. We are facing into a massive budgetary emergency in our education estate and we’re doing so with no government in place to address it.
“There needs to be a step change in the all-party talks. The future of our children’s education is too important. All parties should work intensively to reach a resolution.”
