By Maggie Taggart BBC Northern Ireland education correspondent

Education boards across Northern Ireland are facing harsh financial realities.

What do the cutbacks mean at the chalk face?

While they are hoping the cutbacks they have implemented so far will not impact in the classroom, it is hard to believe they won't be felt by both pupils and teachers.

The latest cuts to be announced in the South Eastern Education and Library Board (SEELB) cover a myriad of measures.

The total it aims to save amounts to more than �13m.

The vote in favour of the cuts on Tuesday was almost unanimous, but one board member is not convinced they will not impact on children and says the financial arrangements are like "smoke and mirrors".

The director of finance at the South Eastern board has been suspended as a "precautionary measure" and, over at the Belfast board (BELB), the chief executive has also been suspended while a consultancy firm examines administration there.

Its overspend appears to be at least �5.5m for last year. That does not take into account the savings it needs to make this financial year.

Those two boards have been singled out by NI Education Minister Barry Gardiner. They have been roundly chastised by him for not doing enough to cut their deficits.

He has warned that if they continue to overspend, the balance will have to be met by other boards.

Education Minister Barry Gardiner chastised the boards

But at least one other claims to be already living on the breadline.

The North Eastern Education board says it saw signs of financial trouble and cut back on all but emergency maintenance last February as a way of saving �4.5m.

That is a tactic which has now been used by three boards, but which has been condemned as a risky strategy.

If small faults are not repaired early, they can develop into much larger and more costly ones.

Board members say they can only do this for one year, it is not a sustainable cost cut.

The two boards that have been highlighted for their deficits - the Belfast and the South Eastern - each quote two areas which are costing them more and over which they have little control: home-to-school transport and special education.

The special education rights of pupils have been strengthened.

More are going to mainstream schools. More parents are demanding better services for their children and that will have to be paid for, to stay within the law.

A recent tribunal means the South Eastern board will have to pay for specialist home tuition for an autistic child and that family's successful appeal will encourage others to demand the same.

What impact will cutbacks have on pupils?

Unless the Department of Education agrees to cover the bill, that means more expenditure for the boards.

The boards are already telling parents that unless their children are legally entitled to free transport to school, they will not get it.

That affects those who live just inside the statutory distance from school but who, up to now, have been included in the bus run.

The chief executive of the South Eastern board, Jackie Fitzsimons, has told his board members that worse lies ahead if, as predicted, the government cuts �40m from the education budget next year.

He says it is no excuse to say that numbers of pupils are falling, because the average cost per pupil is rising as more and more are categorised as having "special educational needs ".