The board also suggests increasing music tuition fees by 15%

Documents show that it could have an overspend for the current year alone of almost �15m.

Board members are being asked to vote on a range of options including cuts in special educational needs staff and transport costs.

The SEELB, which has a budget of almost �220m, had originally said the deficit was about �5.7m.

But the DUP's Sammy Wilson says the figure was reduced by subtracting the �12m of surplus money which schools have been "squirreling away".

Schools have been warned not to spend their surpluses until they see what their budgets are for next year.

The board intends to save almost all of its �15m overspend in a range of cost cutting measures being put to board members at Tuesday's meeting.

Fees review

They include asking schools to save �2.5m, saving �2m by cancelling all except emergency maintenance and taking �400,000 from the school libraries budget.

The board also suggests increasing music tuition fees by 15% and reviewing the number of classroom assistants for special educational needs pupils.

Last week, the chief executive of the Belfast Education and Library Board was suspended after a meeting on its overspend.

The board ran up a deficit of about �5m in the last financial year and is predicting another multi-million pound shortfall in this one.

It said that the decision to suspend David Cargo was a "precautionary" measure which is not a "presumption of any guilt".