More than £3m has been paid out for pupil accident claims in Northern Ireland’s schools over the past five years, ranging from slips and falls to a ‘friction burn’.

New figures show that accidents across the school estate, including playgrounds, classrooms, canteens, corridors and assembly halls, have resulted in EA paying out a total of £3,040,100.

In total, 72 accidents occurred in controlled and maintained schools over the past five years, resulting in compensation.

While a large share of these incidents occurred in playgrounds (40%), one in four took place inside classrooms (24%).

Slips, trips and falls were the most common type of injury recorded (43%), followed by contact with windows or doors (13%) and being ‘struck by an object’ (8%).

Elsewhere, contact with a hot object also accounted for 8% of accidents, ahead of PE accidents (7%) and contact with gates or fences (6%).

One-off incidents included a pupil being ‘struck on the head with furniture’ and another pupil sustaining a ‘friction burn caused by school supplied corded necklace/tag’.

It comes after The Irish News reported last month that just over £1m had been paid out in compensation by the Education Authority (EA) for injuries in playgrounds.

The EA said that the ‘alleged area of failure’ for 36% of the accidents was down to equipment safety, followed by maintenance (29%), supervision (24%) and other factors (11%).

SDLP MLA Cara Hunter, who got the figures through an Assembly question, said that she was “shocked but not surprised” at the figures.

“If we look at the level of delay around school maintenance, I’ve been out at a number of schools recently, things like black mould, literal crumbling walls, old school gates and fences – it’s disappointing, but I’m certainly not surprised,” she said.

“It really raises serious questions about the safety and maintenance of the school estate.”

Ms Hunter added that delays to minor works were causing problems and that the school estate was being neglected.

“I think what we’re seeing is the literal crumbling of our education estate right before our eyes,” she said.

“This is decades of poor decisions.

A spokesperson for the Education Authority (EA) said: “The safety and wellbeing of children is our highest priority. Schools have robust measures in place to keep children safe and minimise the risk of injury, including risk assessments, appropriate supervision, staff training and well-established safeguarding and health and safety protocols.

“Where accidents occur, identified actions are taken to address risks. EA also reviews the circumstances of injury claims to identify lessons and help strengthen health and safety practices.

“Schools have responsibility for ensuring external play equipment and surrounding areas are inspected on an annual basis by an industry regulated inspector, and that any remedial works are carried out. For special schools, this responsibility sits with EA.”

They added that EA’s role was to “provide schools with health and safety guidance, including guidance on outdoor fixed play equipment and a generic risk assessment template”.

“We will continue to highlight the urgent need for sustained investment in Northern Ireland’s school estate to support planned and reactive maintenance and longer-term improvements,” they added.

A spokesperson for the Department of Education said added that “significant health and safety issues are prioritised for action under the Minor Works and Maintenance programmes, within available budget”.

“Successive independent reports have reflected how years of chronic underfunding and limited structural reform have combined to create a financial crisis across education,” they said.

“The minister remains committed to improving the condition of our school estate and has called for urgent, cross-party support to secure the investment needed to ensure that every child in Northern Ireland is educated in a safe, modern and inclusive environment.”