To ask the Minister of Education to detail any (i) guidance; and (ii) financial support his Department has in place to support international and cultural exchanges led by post-primary schools in Northern Ireland.

The guidance relating to the arrangements for educational visits involving registered pupils at grant-aided schools is set out in Chapter 14 of the Governor Guide. In addition, the Education Authority has published Educational Visits Guidance for schools on its website.

All grant-aided schools are funded under the Common Funding Scheme (CFS). The Common Funding Formula (CFF) is the Department’s mechanism for allocating the Aggregated Schools’ Budget (ASB) to schools funded through Local Management of Schools arrangements. A school’s CFF allocation is expected to meet a range of items of expenditure, as detailed in Annex A1 of the CFS, including but not limited to education visits and journeys.

The CFF does not provide any specific funding to post-primary schools to support international and cultural exchanges. In addition, my Department does not have any other funding in place for this particular purpose outside the ASB (e.g. earmarked funds).