IPPN

Last Updated: Monday, 13 November 2006 00:00

Following many years of raising the matter with the DES, we are pleased to inform you that three welcome improvements have been announced by the Minister which will provide better administrative capacity for Principals in a small number of schools.

The measures announced include:

• full-time administrative deputy principal in schools of 24 or more mainstream class teachers
• A full time administrative deputy principal in schools with five or more special classes - excluding dyslexia & mild general learning disabilities
• A full time administrative principal in schools with 4 or 5 teachers where there is an autism unit approved by the NCSE.

Since 2001, IPPN has consistently highlighted the critical need for additional administrative support for Principals through strengthening and supporting the role of Deputy Principal. A strong case for this argument was made in IPPN's submission to the DES on 'Reducing the Administrative burden of schools' where we sought the appointment of an Administrative Deputy Principal in schools with sixteen or more teachers. Earlier this year also the IPPN publication Giorraíonn Beirt Bóthar set out for the first time a profile of the role of Deputy Principal based on current best practice in action and recommended that 'appropriate leadership time must be agreed for Deputy Principals'. It is a testimony to the action research used for this document, that it has played a role in prompting this welcome change in official policy.

'While we are pleased that there is some movement on this issue, it is only addressing the 'tip of the iceberg' in terms of the real problem, as the measures announced will primarily benefit a handful of very large schools said IPPN President Tomás O Slatara. Many large schools who do not reach the magic figure of 24 mainstream class teachers will feel that the appointment of Administrative Deputy Principals should have been on the basis of the total number of staff, teaching and ancillary, being managed in the school . One school informed us that although having 21 class teachers along with 13 Support/Resource Teachers, 8 SNA and also being designated Band 1 Disadvantaged under DEIS scheme that they will not qualify to have a full time Administrative Deputy Principal.

Meanwhile, more than seven out of ten Principals will continue to have full class teaching responsibility and only receive a small number of 'Administrative days', which are very often rendered ineffective or impossible to organise due to the unavailability of suitably qualified and experienced teachers for substitute cover. Teaching Principals continue to fulfill two distinct and simultaneously demanding roles without proper secretarial support in most cases. This situation continues because the inadequate grant system for secretarial services puts the very schools that need it most at a distinct disadvantage.

As Tomás O Slatara said at IPPN Conference 2006

'there is ample evidence that children are at a disadvantage because they are in the class of a teaching principal' and that 'teaching principals are at a serious disadvantage in trying to fulfil their dual role as principal and teacher'

It is important that this dilemma experienced daily by over 2,300 Teaching Principals is addressed by fresh thinking and new initiatives to undo this disadvantage and meet the special needs of teaching principals. In our contribution to the DES Working Group on Principals' Workload and In School Management and in the report 'New Horizons for Smaller Schools and Teaching Principalship', we have highlighted the need for practical solutions and made recommendations on this issue. IPPN will continue to lobby and pursue this issue.