Up to 14 schools are facing closure or delay to critical upgrade plans because of a shake-up in the Northern Ireland education administration, an Assembly committee was told today.
The schools are in danger because declining pupil numbers are jeopardising their bids for renovation or new buildings.
Area plans are being introduced by the Department of Education in an effort to streamline provision, but MLA Jeffrey Donaldson, said the uncertainty was affecting parents' choices.
"My concern at the moment, because there's a lack of clarity in the process, it is taking on a life of its own on the ground without any form of structure and so on and . . . that worries me greatly," he told a meeting of the Assembly's education committee.
A total of eight schools have had capital projects rebuffed because of falling numbers, while another six have been held up because of question marks over the "robustness" of their schemes amid the reorganisation.
A report last December recommended area plans to run alongside the broader Review of Public Administration creating a centralised education authority and districts linking in to the number of local councils.
But committee chairman Sammy Wilson of the DUP dubbed the new arrangements "byzantine" and criticised the multi-tiered system of oversight.
Department of Education permanent secretary Will Haire said the minister, Caitriona Ruane of Sinn Féin, could not come to a snap decision on such a far-reaching proposal.