Northern schools to benefit from new funding

Schools in disadvantaged areas in Northern Ireland are set to benefit from a radical overhaul of funding announced today by Stormont Education Minister Martin McGuinness.

The Sinn Fein minister is planning to ensure a more equal allocation of resources by replacing the seven Local Management of Schools (LMS) formulae with one single calculation.

He also intends to provide more Targeting Social Need (TSN) money to help schools and pupils from socially deprived areas, while increasing the slice of the budget given to the primary sector.

Speaking at the launch of a consultation document at Stormont, he referred to the imbalance in funding between the primary and secondary sectors.

"A pupil in a primary school currently attracts around 65% of the funding attracted by a post primary pupil. While there are different needs in the two sectors, I believe this differential is too wide."

He added: "I am convinced that it is neither defensible, equitable nor indeed sensible to have seven different LMS formulae for the allocation of resources to schools.

"I am committed to the development of a single common funding formula to ensure that schools with similar characteristics receive similar levels of funding, regardless of the area or sector in which they are located."

The minister is hoping to receive feedback from a wide range of groups and people interested in the future of education. The closing date for comments is June 29, 2001. The new policy is expected to be implemented in April, 2002.

At present each of the five Education and Library Boards operates its own LMS formula and the department operates two formulae - one for grant maintained integrated schools and one for voluntary grammar schools.

Acknowledging there had been some narrowing of the discrepancy in funding in recent years, Mr McGuinness said an increasing number of primary schools were finding it difficult to remain within budget.

"There is still room for improvement and I am proposing that primary sector funding is increased by an additional 4% or almost £12m based on current budgets."

The minister plans to pass more money directly into the classroom by raising the amount of funding delegated to schools by up to £15m. He will be encouraging the boards to take action this year to increase their allocations to schools.

Commenting on the proposals for TSN, Mr McGuinness said: "We must tackle under-achievement among pupils of all backgrounds, while continuing to help schools deal with the particular problems of children from disadvantaged circumstances.

"Under these proposals, more schools will qualify for TSN funding and to ensure that they have the support they need, I propose to increase the allocation under this factor from 5% to 5.5% of the total schools’ recurrent budget," he added.