The number of secondary schools in Northern Ireland operating in a budget deficit has risen by almost a fifth in just five years.
The latest figures from the Department of Education show 61 schools now in the red, up from 52 in 2021-22.
This means the number of secondary schools in deficit has climbed by 17% in the same time period.
The figures come amid sustained pressure on education budgets, with schools across all sectors having faced repeated funding constraints in recent years.
West Belfast MLA Gerry Carroll said the figures represented a “damning indictment of years of austerity” and called on Stormont to do more to fund schools.
“Behind each one of these deficits is a child going without the support they need and teachers stretched to breaking point. As always, pupils in the most deprived communities and those with special educational needs will end up suffering the most,” he said.
“The EA has recently been warning of routine school closures because of underfunding, in the context of a multi-year budget that still hasn’t been agreed by an inept Executive. Our education system can’t function on goodwill and efficiency savings. The Executive must stop hiding behind endless cuts and fund our schools.”
The Department said the figures do not include Grant-maintained Integrated schools, whose finances are reported separately in individual annual accounts, or grammar schools, which are excluded entirely.
The latest figures comes after Chief Executive of the Education Authority wrote to every school in the north last week, warning that financial pressures now “dominate everything”
In a letter, Richard Pengelly said budget constraints are hampering what the EA can deliver across the system.
“The financial context continues to dominate everything we do,” he wrote.
“These pressures impact the choices available to us, the pace at which improvements can be delivered, and the level of support we can provide throughout the education system.”
In the same letter, Mr Pengelly wrote that SEN provision in the north’s schools is “simply not good enough”.
A spokesperson for the Education Authority (EA) said:
“Unfortunately, schools continue to face significant challenges, including ongoing budget pressures.
“Increasing costs driven primarily by inflationary factors have created the financial challenges facing all public bodies including schools at present. As a direct result of these challenges, the EA has seen an increase in the number of schools operating in a budgetary deficit.
“EA finance services continue to work with schools to help them manage their budgetary pressures.”
A Department of Education spokesperson said: “Education continues to face unavoidable cost pressures and rising service demands associated with delivering statutory and policy obligations that the current budget does not fully address.”
“Education has been and remains significantly underfunded. This is independently evidenced by not only the Institute for Fiscal Studies in its last two comparison papers on school spending per pupil across the United Kingdom, but more recently the Independent Review of Education’s report, Investing in a Better Future.”