Schools being ‘failed’ by successive DUP ministers

Schools being ‘failed’ by successive DUP ministers

12 November 2025

A LOCAL politician has claimed schools are being “failed” by successive DUP education ministers.

The assertion by South Down MLA Cathy Mason comes after the recent findings of the Public Accounts Committee on the management of the schools’ estate which she described as “nothing short of alarming”.

The Sinn Fein MLA said the report confirms what parents, teachers and pupils have known for years — “too many of our schools are being failed by successive DUP Ministers”.

Mrs Mason said the Public Accounts Committee found the Department of Education and the Education Authority have operated for over a decade without a comprehensive plan for maintaining or improving the school estate.

She said instead of forward planning, there has been “reactive crisis management” resulting is an £800m maintenance backlog and a further £29m of remedial works that have been allowed to pile up.

“This is not only poor management, it is unsafe and unsustainable,” Mrs Mason declared.

“For nearly 10 years the DUP has been at the helm of our education system which has drifted from one short-term fix to the next, while the school estate has crumbled around our children. 

“There has been no long-term strategy, no proper investment in preventative maintenance and no accountability for the money that has been spent. This is a DUP failure.”

Mrs Mason said the failures have been compounded by years of British government austerity and their “chronic underfunding of public services here”.

She said this is the constitutional and political arrangement that the DUP supports and defends.

“Undoubtedly, Westminster’s cuts have squeezed every department and left frontline services struggling to cope. But even within those constraints, local ministers had choices,” Mrs Mason.

“Billions of pounds have been allocated to education but successive DUP education ministers failed to plan, failed to prioritise and failed to get a grip of the crisis facing our school’s estate.”

Mrs Mason insists this is not an isolated issue. 

“The Audit Office has repeatedly found that despite hundreds of millions of pounds being spent on special educational needs, the Department and the Education Authority could not demonstrate value for money. It paints the same picture — money spent but not managed and children and staff paying the price,” she said.

“We now need an urgent, system-wide reset. The Department and the Education Authority (EA) must immediately deliver the comprehensive estate strategy promised for early 2026. 

“They must tackle the maintenance backlog, invest in special educational needs provision and treat our school buildings as an essential building block to educational success.”

The South Down MLA said every child should be educated in safe, warm classrooms. 

“That is the bare minimum our pupils, families and staff should expect. It is time for Minister Givan to stop the excuses and to get on with providing our education system with the facilities needed to deliver the best possible opportunities for our children and young people.”

Mrs Mason has also criticised the decision to increase the price of school meals by around £10 per month for children and the EA decision to consider higher charges for pupils using school music services.

“For years, there has been inadequate management and planning by the Education Department and EA. Audit Office reports have repeatedly highlighted inefficiencies and waste within the EA and Department of Education for years, yet no action has been taken,” she said.

“Now the Department and EA are piling further hardship on young people and their families, instead of breaking down barriers to education and giving children the best chance to thrive.”