Proposed cuts to education funding in Northern Ireland will set students in Northern Ireland back by a "significant amount" when compared with their counterparts in other regions of the UK, MPs have been told.
The Education Authority is facing a funding gap of £200 million in the budget set by Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris in the absence of a Stormont executive.
Sarah Long, chief executive of the Education Authority, gave evidence to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee on Wednesday on the funding and delivery of public services in the region.
"In terms of the thumbnail of where we are financially, it would be fair to say that we are very deeply concerned about where we find ourselves in terms of education," Ms Long said.
She said many of the programmes that would have to be cut or see a decrease in funding aimed to improve the education of children most at need.
"Those are things like the Engage programme, that was put in place in terms of the pandemic, Healthy Happy Minds, some of our shared education work and our holiday hunger payments as well," Ms Long said.
