The principal of a Northern Irish primary school is encouraging parents to speak out against "draconian budget cuts" that will have a devastating impact on children's education.
Kevin Donaghy, principal of of St Ronan's Primary School, Newry, has written to parents to explain why teachers have been forced to take "unprecedented" industrial action in recent weeks and has asked them for their support in calling for more funding to schools in Northern Ireland from the secretary of state and political parties.
He has highlighted how over the past 10 years schools have had their budgets reduced, but the most recent cuts imposed by Secretary Of State Chris Heaton-Harris, are "draconian" and will harm the ability for schools to deliver a high quality education to children.
Read more: Families and community groups come together to protest against cuts in Northern Ireland
The principal has also joined others across Northern Ireland in writing to the Secretary of State highlighting the "chronic underfunding of schools" and the devastating impact recent cuts will have.
Mr Donaghy said that it is becoming difficult for schools to get staff and supply teachers, as many teachers are leaving NI for better pay as teachers here are the lowest paid in the UK.
He said that the recent cuts will see school budgets reduced by 2.7%, while those in England have increased by 6%, and that funding has been withdrawn entirely from a number of key services which include; primary school counselling, books for P1 pupils, cycling proficiency scheme, free schools meals programme and school crossing patrols.
96% of the schools budget this year will go on staffing costs, which is up from 91% in previous years, and of the remaining 4%, more than half will be earmarked for school heating costs.
This means the school has 1.7% of its budget to cover everything from supply teacher cover for sickness, electricity costs and rates bills to bin collections, ground maintenance, cleaning products, support programmes for children and stationary.
The principal told parents that the Department of Education and the Education Authority that schools must live within their budget and do not have permission to go into a deficit.
Mr Donaghy said in the letter to parents: "As you can see living within our school budget will be an impossible task. We have cut all we can. I would challenge any politician to run a 400 plus pupil school on an allocation of circa £20,000. There is nothing more that we can cut without seriously impacting on your child's education and well being."
It continued: "As parents I would ask that you support Headteachers, teachers, school staff, schools but most importantly pupils by writing to the NI Secretary of State and the leaders of the political parties to secure an increase in direct funding to schools. This is for your children, 'they are the living message we send into the future'.
"If we do not stand up and speak out against these cuts to school budgets, what message will we be sending with our children into the future about the importance of their education?"
Mr Donaghy has joined nursery and primary school principals from across Northern Ireland in writing to NI SOS Chris Heaton-Harris to express their "dismay and concern over the current financial crisis in education".
The letter from principals warns that many schools are already operating in a deficit and due to the recent cuts this is likely to worsen or remain the same in the coming months.
It says that school funding was already insufficient over the past decade and that there is no room for further cuts which will be "catastrophic".
This could lead to larger class sizes, cuts to literacy and numeracy support, special educational needs provisions and a lack of services in vital areas of non-statutory education.
Funding for schools has also not increased in line with inflation, meaning that school costs have increased dramatically.
The letter says: "As a collective group of school leaders, we are very concerned that cuts to funding pose a very real risk of a decline in educational standards across Northern Ireland. The quality of education in Northern Ireland has always been of an extremely high standard and we are fearful of the future for our pupils due to the impact of these funding cuts on their education. The extent of the projected school funding cuts will also have a damaging effect on our wider school communities."
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