The majority of the funding recommended to tackle educational underachievement will not be available in 2023/24.
That is according to a Department of Education (DE) progress report on the Fair Start report and action plan.
The Fair Start report was a landmark and wide-ranging five-year strategy to tackle educational underachievement in Northern Ireland.
But DE said that there was only £2.5m of funding for the strategy in 2023/24, rather than the recommended £21m.
The department has blamed its "extremely challenging financial position" for the cut.
"This will invariably have a significant limiting impact on the scale and pace of change that can be achieved," DE said.
