Schools could face closure as Northern Ireland repair backlog soars beyond £600m warns EA

The risk of schools being forced to close because of deteriorating buildings is growing across Northern Ireland, with the Education Authority warning that years of underfunding have left the schools estate facing a maintenance backlog estimated at between £600 million and £800 million.

The stark warning comes as the Education Authority (EA) says it is rapidly approaching a point where schools – or parts of schools – may have to close on safety grounds because essential repairs cannot be carried out.

The revelation has prompted calls for urgent intervention from Stormont, with politicians warning that pupils and staff are already feeling the consequences of crumbling buildings, ageing infrastructure and mounting repair delays.

Funding gap leaves schools vulnerable

The Education Authority is responsible for maintaining more than 1,100 schools across Northern Ireland, representing a public estate valued at approximately £4.6 billion.

Industry guidance suggests around two per cent of a property’s value should be spent annually on maintenance. For Northern Ireland’s schools estate, that would equate to around £92 million every year simply to maintain buildings and prevent deterioration.

However, the EA’s total maintenance budget for 2025/26 stands at £61.1 million – more than £30 million below that benchmark.

The authority says the shortfall has left it unable to carry out routine preventative maintenance for many years.

As a result, no funding has been available for cyclical maintenance activities such as minor building repairs, decoration programmes, resurfacing works, floor replacement schemes or gutter cleaning.

The EA says these are the very measures that help prevent more costly and serious problems developing later.

Growing backlog and rising safety concerns

According to the authority, funding constraints have forced maintenance teams to focus almost entirely on emergencies and essential repairs.

During 2025/26, £23.6 million was allocated to reactive maintenance, covering issues such as major roof leaks, heating failures and electrical faults requiring urgent attention.

Even then, approximately £2.3 million worth of routine maintenance requests went unaddressed because funding was unavailable.

A further £19.5 million was spent on statutory inspections and legal compliance requirements, including fire alarm testing, gas safety inspections, electrical testing, asbestos management and legionella controls.

Planned maintenance received £18 million, though the EA says much of this funding was directed towards unavoidable emergency works rather than long-term improvements.

The authority warns that the cumulative effect of underinvestment is a steadily growing maintenance backlog and a worsening condition across the school estate.

It states:

“We will soon reach the position where schools, or part of schools, routinely need to close due to unaddressed maintenance issues.”

Thousands of repairs carried out despite pressures

Despite the financial constraints, the Education Authority says maintenance teams completed approximately 50,000 reactive repairs during 2025/26.

That equates to around 1,000 repairs every week, or roughly one maintenance repair per school every week across Northern Ireland.

The authority has also introduced a new contractor management system aimed at improving performance, accountability and responsiveness among private sector maintenance providers.

Under the revised arrangements, contractors are measured against specific standards covering response times, completion rates, quality of work and health and safety performance.

Schools are also expected to receive clearer information about how maintenance requests are being managed.

Political pressure mounts on Executive

The figures have triggered concern among elected representatives, with SDLP Opposition Education Spokesperson Cara Hunter MLA describing the situation as a crisis requiring immediate action from the Executive.

The East Derry MLA said the scale of the backlog and the possibility of school closures should “set alarm bells ringing across the Executive”.

Ms Hunter said many schools across Northern Ireland are in urgent need of repairs and, in some cases, entirely new buildings.

She argued that years of failing to address routine maintenance issues such as mould, roof deterioration and ageing facilities had allowed problems to worsen and become more expensive to fix.

The SDLP representative also highlighted the growing reliance on temporary accommodation in schools.

“We have already seen schools forced to close parts of their buildings and, in some instances, close altogether,” she said.

“Portacabins have become part of daily life in far too many schools. What were intended as temporary measures have become a long-term reality because schools cannot get the investment they need.”

She added that the situation was having a direct impact on pupils’ educational experiences and wider school communities.

Pressure likely to intensify

The Education Authority says the condition of Northern Ireland’s school estate will only improve if maintenance funding increases significantly.

It estimates annual spending would need to rise to around £90 million before the organisation could begin tackling the growing backlog rather than simply responding to emergencies.

Without that increase, the authority warns the repair bill will continue to rise, building conditions will continue to deteriorate and the risk of disruption to education services will become increasingly difficult to avoid.

For thousands of pupils, teachers and parents across Northern Ireland, the issue is no longer simply about ageing buildings. The warning from the Education Authority suggests it is becoming a question of whether schools can remain fully operational in the years ahead.