Cost of school dinners to rise amid funding crisis in the education sector

The cost of paid-for school dinners in Northern Ireland will rise by 50p in January as part of measures to address a funding crisis in the education sector.

The Education Authority (EA) has also said it is concerned about the rising cost of taxi use for home to school transport as it aims to find £30 million in savings.

EA chief executive Richard Pengelly recently wrote to all principals and chairs of boards of school governors in the region, asking them to consider taking “any and all actions possible to reduce expenditure”.

The EA, which manages schools in Northern Ireland, is facing a funding shortfall of around £300 million.

In a statement on Wednesday, the EA said education services in the region have faced “growing and increasingly unsustainable budgetary shortfalls for a number of years”.

The statement added: “We have been advised that, unlike the position in previous years, additional significant funding allocations are unlikely to be made available to address this shortfall.

“The Education Authority has therefore regrettably been required to identify a series of significant savings measures.

“While these measures will inevitably have an adverse impact on services, it is also the case that they can only make a partial contribution to achieving a break-even budget.”

The statement said around 85% of its annual expenditure is incurred on payroll costs, including pay for teachers and school support staff.

The EA also said virtually all of its services are statutory in nature and cannot be lawfully stopped.

It said it had identified a number of measures which “have the potential to realise up to £30 million in savings”.

These include:

– Implementing savings in home to school transport, including potential renegotiated payments to taxi operators; and exploring options on individual school transport arrangements that are outside EA’s legislative and policy obligations.

The statement said: “The increasing cost of taxis is of significant concern to EA.

“The total annual bill for taxi use has more than doubled in five years – growing from £19,428,826 in 2020/2021 to £39,753,169 in 2024/2025.”

– A 50p increase in the price of a set school meal for paying pupils (primary, nursery and special schools) with equivalent percentage increases for food items in school cafeterias (post-primary schools).

These increases will take effect from January 2026 and pupils receiving free school meals will not be affected.

The EA said prices paid for school meals have not increased since 2017/18 and will “remain well below the cost of producing a meal”.

Current school meal prices are £2.50 for pre-school and £2.60 for primary and special schools. At secondary schools there are cafeteria meals, where the meal deal is currently set at £2.80.

– Increasing income from charging EA’s music service.

– Suspending further referrals to external, contracted providers of EOTAS (Education Other Than At School) services.

– Ending some agency contracts and reducing overtime payments across the EA’s corporate workforce.