Northern Ireland needs the equivalent of eight new secondary schools to cope with growing demand for pupil places, a new report has found.
An additional 7,332 pupils will join the school system by 2020/2021, according to Scape Group, the public sector procurement specialist.
And to meet this demand, a total of 293 additional secondary school classrooms are needed – that’s equivalent to eight new secondary schools.
Scape’s report, The School Places Challenge 2019, examines the challenge facing the UK’s school system using Department of Education and devolved authority data.
The report reveals that Northern Ireland’s school-aged population is set to increase by 9.4 per cent by 2020/21.
At the same time, the current school system is struggling. The cost of maintaining school buildings has soared and schools in Northern Ireland are set to overspend their budgets by about £33m in 2018/19.
However, Northern Ireland’s Department of Education announced in May 2018 that up to £60m would be made available to 25 existing schools through a current School Enhancement Programme (SEP), for much-needed accommodation upgrades.
Funding of between £500,000 and £4m is available through the SEP for projects aimed at refurbishing or extending existing buildings.
Mark Robinson, Scape Group Chief Executive, said Northern Ireland needs to build hundreds of school classrooms in a short timeframe, and local authorities across the country continue to feel the strain.
“We must collectively focus on delivering a strategy and solutions which not only provide high-quality, modern spaces for teaching and learning but also offer our colleagues in local authorities cost certainty, value for money and timely delivery,” he said.
And he said the issue of school places delivery is likely to be exacerbated in the coming years.
“With demand continuing to grow, it is vital that we focus on solutions that will allow us to create additional school places quickly and resourcefully, without compromising on quality,” he added.
Offsite technology is one answer which has been suggested. Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) not only enable quick construction, but can also cost local authorities significantly less.
“Until the government takes more pragmatic action, they cannot claim to be safeguarding the futures of young people,” added Mr Robinson.
According to Scape Group, the adoption of offsite construction as the main method of building for all new schools and extensions would ensure that they are built faster than traditional methods.
A fairer education funding model for local authorities, which ensures that they can work with central government to set budgets that reflect local need has been suggested. In particular, local authorities should play a part in judging and approving free school proposals to make sure that new schools are established where they are most needed, Scape Group has recommended.
The full report, The School Places Challenge 2019, can be downloaded from scapegroup.co.uk/research.