NAHT Northern Ireland has warned that the school estate is now at a critical tipping point, following confirmation from the Education Authority that the maintenance backlog across Northern Ireland’s schools has reached between £600 million and £800 million, with an increasing risk of school closures on safety grounds.

The union says school leaders have been forced for years to “patch and prop” buildings just to keep schools open for children, often stepping far beyond their professional role.

Dr Graham Gault, National Secretary of school leaders' union NAHT NI, said:

“School leaders have been holding this system together with what can only be described as sticking plaster solutions. They are managing all sorts of failures, from plumbing to heating, and, in some cases, assuming operational responsibility for building issues that should never sit with them, simply to keep their schools open for children.

That situation is unacceptable, and it cannot continue.”

NAHT NI said the EA’s figures confirm what school leaders have been reporting for years; that the estate is deteriorating faster than it can be repaired, with no funding for preventative maintenance and increasing reliance on emergency interventions.

The union stressed that the crisis is not the responsibility of school leaders, nor solely of the Education Authority or Education Minister, but of the wider Stormont Executive.

“Let’s be absolutely clear; this is not a maintenance issue, it is a funding failure,” Dr Gault continued.

“The scale of the backlog is the direct result of political decisions taken over many years. Stormont has repeatedly failed to prioritise education in its budget, and our children are now seeing the consequences in the condition of the buildings they learn in every day.”

NAHT NI warned that the consequences are now unavoidable.

It is hard to imagine that schools will not close without urgent action

“The stark reality is that, without immediate and sustained investment, classes, corridors and entire buildings may have to close. The Education Authority has said this risk is growing, and school leaders are already seeing it on the ground.

This is no longer a hypothetical scenario. It is an emerging reality.”