Five of the island’s primary schools had budgets of more than £1 million last year.

Meanwhile secondary school budgets ranged between £4 million and nearly £7.5 million.

The figures were revealed this week after an MHK asked for a breakdown of staffing costs at all the island’s schools and how they rated as a percentage of the overall budget for each school.

In all cases, staffing costs accounted for more than 80% of a school’s budget and in many instances it topped 90%. When broken down further, teachers accounted for more than 80% of staffing costs.

Education Minister Graham Cregeen included the figures in a written answer following a question tabled in the House of Keys by Julie Edge (Onchan).

The figures cover 31 primary schools, but do not include Bunscoill Ghaelgagh, the Manx language primary in St John’s.

Bunscoill Rhumsaa, in Ramsey, has the highest budget among primary schools, coming in at £1,650,498 in 2017/18. The smallest budget was at Foxdale School, which was £299,742 in the same year,

The four other primary schools that had a budget of more than £1 million were Scoill yn Jubilee, Douglas (£1,285,154), Peel Clothworkers’ School (£1,245,178), Onchan School (£1,201,143) and Cronk-y-Berry School, Douglas (£1,091,605).

In terms of secondary schools, the two Douglas high schools topped the list with Ballakermeen on £7,481,400 in 2017/18 and St Ninian’s on £6,709,300.

Next up was Ramsey Grammar, at £4,748,600, followed by Castle Rushen High School in Castletown on £4,096,200 and Queen Elizabeth II High School in Peel on £4,005,300.

Included in the secondary school costs are invigilation fees.

University College Isle of Man had the highest budget of any of the government’s education establishments, however, coming in at £9,530,983 in 2017/18.

In response to a separate question from Ms Edge, Mr Cregeen confirmed that the Department of Education, Sport and Culture was ultimately responsible for health and safety issues in schools.

The minister said overall legal responsibility for health and safety in schools lay with the department’s chief executive while the day-to-day management responsibility was with the head teacher, who could ’further delegate management responsibilities to their senior members of staff’.

Pressed further, he said that if a health and safety issue ever ended up in court, it would be the department CEO who would be expected to appear.