Northern Ireland schools funding rise hit by pension costs

A funding rise for schools in Northern Ireland will be almost entirely spent on increased teacher pension costs.

The Department of Education has increased the money schools get per pupil by more than 5% in 2019-20.

However, schools have had to pay a 7.4% increase in employer pension contributions since 1 April.

The amount of funding per pupil for 2019-20 has just been published by the department.

All schools will receive a basic £116 more per pupil this school year than in 2018-19.

However, the department said that due to the increased cost of teachers' pensions, the money schools would get per pupil would stay at 2018-19 levels in real terms.

"The department has increased the 2019-20 aggregated schools' budget by £7.25m to maintain the age weighted pupil unit (AWPU) cash value at 2018-19 levels and £54.6m to mitigate the increase in teacher pension costs from 1 April 2019," it said.

"The 2019-20 AWPU cash value has been maintained at the 2018-19 level, when the additional funding to mitigate the increase in teacher pension costs is excluded."

School budgets in Northern Ireland have decreased by around 10% in recent years.

That has meant that almost half of schools in Northern Ireland are in budget deficit.

There have also been a number of recent warnings that school budgets are under increasing pressure with particular concerns around support for pupils with Special Educational Needs.

About three-quarters of the funding a nursery or primary school gets from the department is based on the numbers of pupils it has.

In post-primaries, almost 85% of the funding they get from the department is based on pupil numbers.

Primary and nursery schools will receive around £579m through the department's common funding scheme in 2019-20, compared to around £553m in 2018-19.

Post-primary schools will receive a total of £650m in 2019-20, compared to £614m last year.

Due to a weighting value attached to each pupil, post-primary schools receive significantly more money per child than primary schools.

Last year, the cash value of the vast majority of primary and nursery school pupils under the common funding formula was £1,998 per pupil.

However, in 2019-20 that has risen to £2,114 per pupil.

A weighting value attached to each pupil means that primary schools will actually receive £2,283 per pupil.

Post-primary schools will receive £2,172 per pupil in 2019-20 compared to just under £2,056 last year.

However, a higher weighting value means that post-primaries will receive £3,649 for each pupil in years 8-12 and around £4,518 per sixth form pupil.