The Department for Infrastructure (DfI) announced that it was no longer affordable to pay children for cycling lessons at school.
The department told BBC News NI that “budget constraints” meant it could not continue paying teachers or trainers to deliver the classes.
Schools have to pay the teachers themselves if they want to continue the program.
However, the department will continue to provide training.
The cycling skills program has been running in schools across Northern Ireland for over 50 years and has trained over half a million students in that time.
It teaches kids who can already ride a bike how to ride a bike safely, including clothing, bike maintenance, and traffic rules.
The program consists of 12 weeks of instruction and is aimed at children in the final years of primary school.
Instructors wishing to teach bicycle safety classes must register and be trained with the department.
In 2021/22, more than 300 elementary schools and around 5,600 elementary school students took part in cycling classes.
The department spent around £32,000 on payments to teachers in 2021/22 and has so far spent around £42,000 in the 2022/23 school year.
But schools planning to run cycling classes between Easter and the end of June have been told the department can no longer afford to pay teachers to run the program.
Kevin Donaghy, Principal of St Ronan’s Primary School in Newry, said acceptance of the program has always been high at his school.
“We would have around 30 to 40 kids doing it – each coach can only take 12 kids at a time so we would have done it three different days a week for our Primary Sevens.
“The kids loved it, they actually got a qualification at the end to say they could drive safely on the road.
“It’s a big deal in the summer semester for Primary Seven and at the moment we don’t know if it will actually go ahead or not.”
He added, “We cannot ask teachers to do more and more and be paid less and less.”
An email to the department’s principals, seen by BBC News NI, said “no budget will be available to pay trainers to deliver the cycling literacy programme”.
“While this will be very disappointing news, I wanted to give you an early update on the position to assist in your school’s decision-making on whether to offer the program to your students this year,” it continued.
The department said: “The cycling skills program is run by teachers in schools, who are paid for it by the department.
“Due to budgetary reasons, we are currently unable to fund this payment to the teachers.
“We will continue to provide teacher training should the need arise and any practical resources needed to run the program should schools wish to continue offering the program.”
Schools have until Friday April 21 to notify the department if they intend to continue the cycling course before the end of the 2022/23 school year.
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