Hundreds of school children gathered outside the Northern Ireland Office today in order to protest against education funding cuts that they say will harm their future.
Dozens of schools from West and North Belfast took part in the demonstration outside Erskine House in Belfast City Centre where they expressed their deep concern and anger over proposals to cut vital programmes such as the Full Service Community Network, Youth Services, Happy Healthy Minds, Engage Funding and Extended Schools Funding, and Holiday Hunger payments.
All of these programmes have made a huge different in the lives of children, boosting their educational attainment along with supporting their mental health and wellbeing and there are fears their loss could have a huge impact on other services like CAMHs as a result.
Read more: Holiday Hunger and school counselling scheme scrapped amid budget cuts
Speaking at the demonstration today, Sean McNamee, principal of St Paul's Primary School, urged the Northern Ireland Office and UK Government to release a budget in order to give schools and young people guidance moving forward.
He said: "We are here because at the minute, no education budget has been allocated and it is the same for most of the other departments, no budget has been allocated.
"Yet the Department of Education is being asked to make very difficult choices about the services they continue to fund. The bottom line is that they can’t really fund any or many of them and as a result many of the services that are being offered in schools have been heavily impacted.
"Some of the supports that have been put in place like Happy Healthy Minds they are there to target mental health and wellbeing for children. If those services are not able to be offered in schools because that funding is gone, what is likely to happen is we will be making more referrals to CAMHS, through hospitals and various other places like that such as GPs.
"So it is going to have an impact on health services where there are huge waiting lists already and those children are not going to have their needs met as quickly as they should be.
"That is going to impact long term on their learning, on their future careers and paths further down the line.
"I think urgently we need to have a budget allocated to each of the departments, particularly for us in the DoE, they need to have their budgets to make a strategic plan and decide what elements of current school projects can continue to be funded, and yes there may be needs for cuts, but they should look at those on a priority basis rather than an across the board cut which seems to be what is happening at the moment."
Sean said that the Cost of Living Crisis is already having a huge impact on schools, pupils and their parents, and the proposed cuts will only worsen this problem and he is worried about children returning from the Easter break hungry.
He continued: "The Cost of Living Crisis has had a huge impact on schools. We have been offering free breakfast clubs, paid for largely by extended schools funding which might be removed, Holiday Hunger payments have also been removed and children will be coming to school hungry, particularly after the break. If extended schools is gone and our breakfast club is gone, that is reinforcing the problem and making it even deeper than it really should be or needs to be.
"You will find that maybe social service involvement, appeals to food banks and mental health is going to be impacted, even parental mental health, all of those sorts of things, these pressures are going to cause additional pressures within families.
"Allocate a budget now, I would like to ask for a very generous budget but even if that is not the case, allocate a budget now, we need it now."
A young P7 pupil from West Belfast, Darragh Snodden addressed the protest with a letter he had written to the Secretary of State, Chris Heaton-Harris.
This was later handed in alongside others from 51 different schools in order to show the SOS the strength of feeling the young people had about their education and the funding cuts.
He said: "Hello my name is Darragh, I am in P7 at St Joseph's Primary School, Slate Street, I just want to remind you all that I am your future.
"However, I am worried about my future. I am worried because I have heard about there not being enough money in government that will help me provide for the best education possible and support me through my teenage years and young adult life.
"I have been very lucky so far I have been able to come to school and learn so many wonderful things because of the support of the West Belfast Partnership Board sharing and learning programme. I have read well over one million words and a lot of books and have become an accelerated reader and I am scoring well above my year group.
"My mummy went to parent courses when I was in nursery and primary school to help me become as smart, safe and healthy as I can be. My teacher worked with other teachers in West Belfast to help him be a better teacher and make learning so much fun and help me succeed.
"This was all done with the support of the West Belfast Partnership Board.
"As I am in P7, I will be moving to post primary in September, and that is a scary thought, I want to go to summer transition school, will that happen for me?
"I go to youth clubs and recreation centres and sometimes go to after school clubs there too. I learn so much as learning goes on when I am not in school. This is all through the WBPB.
"I know you are here today to work and fight for my future, I know you all care for me and want what is best, today I thank you for being there for me. I need WBPB, my little brother in primary two needs them too, the 21,941 other children in West Belfast need them too."
A Gofundme Page has been set-up by Simon Harris for an urgent appeal for Trussel Trust food banks in Northern Irealnd to support vulnerable families following the removal of Holiday Hunger Payments.
He said: "I am running this urgent appeal for Trussell Trust food banks in Northern Ireland after it was announced with just a day’s warning that government school holiday food payments for families in poverty have been withdrawn.
"Around 96,000 children were entitled to £27 per fortnight (hence my crazy target), and so it’s clear that this sudden withdrawal for whatever reason will put an extra strain on a number of services including their 40 or so food banks in Northern Ireland.
"As per usual, I’m not massively interested in yet another ‘can’t feed, don’t breed’ debate - just get the kids fed."
If you would like to donate to the appeal, please follow this link.
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