THE school budget is to be slashed by £10 million over the next year, with Fermanagh-south Tyrone receiving a £700,000 reduction in funding, Education Minister Peter Weir has confirmed.

SDLP MLA Richie McPhillips asked the DUP Minister to detail the amount of funding cuts to school budgets and schools in this constituency following the 2016/17 budget.

“The amount of funding directly delegated to schools via the Aggregated Schools Budget in 2016 to 2017 is £1,167.5 million. This represents a reduction of £10 million or 0.85 per cent compared to the total budget allocations to schools in 2015 to 2016,” said Minister Weir.

“For schools in the Fermanagh-south Tyrone constituency, total delegated funding to these schools in 2016 to 2017 is £76.9 million. This represents a reduction of £0.7 million or 0.9 per cent compared to the previous financial year. Funding at individual school level will reflect both the overall levels of funding distributed and demographic changes within the school, in particular changes in pupil numbers year on year,” he said.

Ulster Unionist MLA Rosemary Barton asked Minister Weir to outline what steps are planned to devolve more control of the education budget to schools.

“It is my intention to give further consideration to the overall Education budget position before I consider what steps I may take to devolve more control of the budget to schools,” he told the Fermanagh-south Tyrone MLA.