Barry Gardiner has said school budgets may be cut

Education Minister Barry Gardiner has made a veiled threat to take the budgets away due to a small proportion of schools overspending and underspending their budgets.

The boards say the main problem is shrinking pupil numbers and they claim drastic action could mean school closures and redundancies.

Boards of governors decide their own financial issues and the matter has caused consternation on both sides.

The minister seems to be using the example of schools in England which are not permitted to go into the red.

In Northern Ireland there has traditionally been a more flexible attitude.

The majority of schools overspend because they are small primary schools which have to employ at least two teachers but which have shrinking rolls and therefore shrinking budgets.