School heads have been told that education faces “painful cuts” due to budget pressures.

The warning comes in a letter to all schools from the top official at the Department of Education (DE).

Ronnie Armour repeated an instruction to heads to restrict the appointment of new staff and limit the use of substitute teachers to save money.

“It is essential that you take these measures and any other measures available to you as you work to reduce your in-year expenditure further,” he wrote.

Armour’s letter said that education was facing a gap of £250m, and he could not “overestimate the financial challenge we face in seeking to address our funding gap”.

But the principal of St Paul’s Primary and Nursery School in west Belfast, Sean McNamee, said there was “very little” schools could do to save money.

“You can’t buy less toilet roll, you can’t not buy soap and paper towels,” he said.

“We’re being asked to cut costs, but the only way really you can do that is by reducing your staffing.

“But you’re stuck.

“All schools will have to maintain their current staffing level even though they don’t have the funding for it.”

McNamee said it would be difficult to restrict the use of substitute teachers.

“If you’ve the right level of staffing and a teacher goes off sick you can’t not bring in a sub,” he said.

The head of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) in Northern Ireland, Dr Graham Gault, said school leaders had taken every possible measure to contain costs.

“There is nothing left to cut without reducing essential services for children,” he told BBC News NI.

“The reality is that schools are operating on the edge. Staffing, resources and support have already been pared back to the minimum.

“Any further reductions will compromise safety, wellbeing and learning.

“This is not a question of efficiency; it is a question of survival.”

The Education Minister Paul Givan recently criticised a multi-year budget put forward by Finance Minister John O’Dowd, and said it would lead to “devastating cuts”.

He said it could lead to measures “such as withdrawing school transport, removing funding from key organisations such as the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS) and the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA), and ending support for Sure Start and Youth services”.

But the First Minister Michelle O’Neill has said executive ministers should do all they can to agree a multi-year budget.

She said the funding on offer from London was “inadequate” and that all ministers had hard choices to make.

Separately, teachers in Northern Ireland were awarded a 4% pay rise in 2025-26, which is expected to cost DE about £38m in 2025-26, and around £65m a year after that.

But Gault said that the executive needed to make “urgent decisions to prioritise education and provide the funding necessary to protect children’s futures”.

“Asking schools to absorb a £250m shortfall by cutting even deeper is unrealistic and irresponsible,” he said.