Ulster Unionist Party Leader and Education spokesperson Jon Burrows MLA has warned that the Department of Education's latest announcement on school funding risks accelerating the decline of rural schools, which serve as the heart of their communities.

Jon Burrows MLA said:

“The funding model for our schools simply isn't working for rural communities. In villages and small towns across Northern Ireland, the school is not just a place of learning. It is the heart of the community and the glue that holds everything together. When a rural school closes, the community loses far more than classrooms. It loses its gathering place, its identity, and often its future.

“That is why today's announcement, while it will be welcomed by grammar schools and larger urban schools, will cause real concern in rural areas, the very communities the existing policy was designed, in part, to protect.

“The Ulster Unionist Party has always supported parental choice. But choice must mean genuine choice for every family, not just those within reach of a large urban school. A policy that quietly drains pupils and funding from smaller schools doesn't expand choice. It removes it from rural parents altogether.

“There is a better way. Shared Education campuses such as Ballycastle show what is possible when rural schools are given the tools to shape their own future. By unlocking dormant capital transformation funding, that model could be replicated across Northern Ireland, giving pupils and parents a sustainable, high-quality alternative to closure.

“Yes, a declining birth rate means Northern Ireland will need fewer classrooms in the years ahead. But that transition must be managed strategically, not left to a funding formula that accelerates decline in the communities that can least afford to lose their local school. A strong education system is one in which every school, and every community, has the opportunity to succeed.”