IPPN

IPPN DEMANDS SWIFT ACTION ON PRIMARY PRINCIPALS SERIOUS WORK OVERLOAD PROBLEM

Growing bureaucracy, non-educational tasks and ever-increasing legislative demands are preventing principals from addressing their key responsibilites of managing teaching and learning in our primary schools. The serious problem of work overload amongst Ireland's Primary Principals is having such a devastating impact on their personal lives that many want to be relieved of their positions, according to research to be published at the IPPN Annual Conference in Dublin.

A survey of 850 members of the Irish Primary Principals' Network (IPPN) revealed that 75% of respondents felt they were either overloaded or seriously overloaded with work. As a result most are suffering from stress. Exhaustion, burn-out, migraine, tiredness, anxiety, a sense of hopelessness and difficulty sleeping were some of the emotional and physical problems being experienced by a large number of principals. Many were concerned with changes to their personality resulting from the stress, such as intolerance and irritability.

As a result of this survey the President of the IPPN Virginia O'Mahony is calling on the Minister for Education and Science, Ms. Mary Hanafin to take swift action to help alleviate the problem. "This is an extremely serious situation which was recognised by the Minister's Department in the setting up of a Working Party on Principals'Work Overload last year," she said. " However immediate reaction is required and our Principals have outlined practical measures which can, and should, be taken to ensure that they can get back to their main tasks and work more effectively. Other improvements in education cannot be realised if the leadership role of Principal suffers from overload."

The first ever survey of it's kind, this research by the IPPN highlighted a number of causes of the work overload. These included:

• Non-educational tasks
  
• Paperwork from the Department of Education and Science and other agencies
  
• The demands of Special Education Needs
  
• The conflicting demands on teaching Principals between class teaching and school leadership
  
• Lack of resources including IT, secretarial, caretaking, Special Needs Assistants, resource teachers, physical working space
  
• People management issues including staff under-performance, disruptive pupils, Boards of Management and parents
  
• Lack of support from the In-School Management team
  
• Unplanned interruptions from salespeople, parents, social workers, doctors,
• Departmental staff and other calling without an appointment
  
• Legal/litigation culture

The survey found that the most serious impact of this work overload was felt by the Principals themselves rather than the schools. It found that "almost every principal mentioned stress as a consequence of their workload. While this is inevitable in most jobs, particularly the professions, most principals say they are suffering far more from stress than at any other time in their career or lives. "In many instances, stress goes hand-in-hand with other problems, is made worse by other problems or indeed causes or exacerbates health problems. A worrying number of principals have been advised by their GP to take sick leave in order to protect their health. "Several respondents said they would 'hand back the keys in the morning' if they could, that they are 'at the end of their tether', 'hanging on by a thread', 'not sure how long more they can last', 'looking forward to early retirement'. They feel very 'isolated', 'alone', 'exposed' and they no longer enjoy the job they felt so positive about a number of years ago.

A number of key recommendations aimed at dealing with the problems were reached during the survey process. These included:

• The reduction of the point at which an administrative principal is appointed from 180 to 150 pupils
  
• That teaching principals would be entitled to a minimum of one release day per week
  
• Deputy principals in schools of 16 teachers or more to be released from teaching duties.
  
• Teaching principals to be able to undertake resource/learning support teaching roles
• When new DES circulars are issued, where additional workload is implied for principals, the necessary human resources (teacher non contact hours) to be allocated accordingly
  
• The management of special education needs to be delegated to the deputy principal or to an assistant principal where relevant
  
• The DES and other relevant agencies to provide dedicated, authoritative e-mail query lines for principals seeking information or interpretation of circulars, policy documents and procedures
  
• Principals to be appointed on a seven/ten year contract as per Green Paper, 1992
  
• Current serving principals to be offered 'step down' facility without loss of seniority, salary allowance and related pension benefits. As in the case of early retirement, a quota of places to be allocated following assessment of annual applications.
  
• Every principal to have access to full time secretarial support.

The report drew the conclusion that the "consistency and depth" of the feelings expressed in the survey does not bode well for the future of principalship in Ireland if something radical is not done to improve the situation."

Principals plead to be allowed return to their core responsibility - leading the quality of teaching and learning in their schools.

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IPPN statement following the address by Dr Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin to the Irish Primary Principals' Network Conference at CityWest Hotel.

The statement that "The primary ethos of the school should be an educational one" by Archbishop Martin in his address to 750 Primary School Principals has been warmly received by IPPN. This is an important statement coming from the Primate of Ireland in his first major address to an education conference. In a wide-ranging speech, Dr Martin displayed a clear understanding of the challenges facing Principals in their leadership of the modern primary school where diversity and plurality form the order of the day. Whilst 90% of primary schools are under Catholic patronage, it is to be welcomed that the Head of the Catholic Church in Ireland recognises 'that education in the fullest sense of the word' is common across all religious ethos. This is a comforting message for principals in their efforts to reflect the traditions of the multi-ethnic school population within the context of a single denomination school. Archbishop Martin stressed that the Catholic school is inclusive rather than exclusive and should continue to be attractive to parents of all faiths.

IPPN was pleased that Dr Martin displayed a particular insight into the challenging role of Principal Teachers and reflected upon the need for the profession to be both highly regarded and well rewarded. He indicated that the status of the teaching profession in the eyes of the public correlated highly with the quality of education provided. 'Any undermining of that status - which is linked also with remuneration - has serious negative effects on the effectiveness of any education system' stated Dr. Martin.

The Archbishop speculated that the shape of management and governance of our schools is unclear for the future. IPPN welcomes the Archbishops invitation "to get it right together". IPPN is extremely eager that the issue of school governance be addressed as part of any examination of principal's workload. The conference heard research from 850 schools outlining widespread dissatisfaction with the level of support principals receive from their Boards of Management.

In response to Archbishop Martins praise for principals and teachers for the role they play in the religious formation of children, IPPN expresses concern at the extent to which the school is depended upon to pass on the faith. Regardless of the nature of religious ethos, principals believe that parents have primary responsibility for the religious upbringing of children. The parent's role should come first, supported by the parish and its clergy and in turn by the primary school. Principals believe that the opposite is the case at present where virtually all responsibility is left with the school to prepare children for sacraments and provide for children's faith formation and religious instruction. Having left behind an era where all children in a given school shared a similar religious ethos, it is essential that the school return to its true role of supporting parents and parish rather than assuming complete responsibility. Declining numbers of parish clergy has seen a corresponding reduction of 'chaplaincy' to schools. Principals recognise that it cannot be assumed that every teacher is willing or capable of providing religious instruction. In the context of the changing nature of schools, principals would welcome meaningful support from appropriately trained chaplains.

In response to a question concerning the Catholic churches requirement that primary schools remained closed on Church Holidays, Archbishop Martin agreed that progress could be made in this area through dialogue and consultation with IPPN. It was clarified that this issue has arisen as a result of negotiations between unions, management and the DES. IPPN was not party to these negotiations, however notes that it is principals who have to deal with this issue at school level. IPPN welcomes the Archbishops recognition of the need to provide a better solution to the issue of 'Holy Days'.

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One of the major talking points among 750 primary school principals attending the Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN) annual conference in Citywest, Dublin this week is how to provide for children with special education needs.

Principals are calling for a fair and equitable system of allocating resources for children with special needs to be put in place immediately so that they can plan properly for the needs of these children.

More than 50,000 children (12%) in our primary schools need extra support, resources and teaching to cater for their special needs. The integration and inclusion of children with special needs is part and parcel of every mainstream school - large and small - and is welcomed as a positive development. Legislation such as The Education Act, 1998 and the more recent Education for Persons with Disabilities Act, 2004 now underpins the rights of every child to an adequate and appropriate education. What is not so positive is the lack of co-ordinated support that many principals and teachers face every day in providing for all children in our schools.

Over the past few years, allocation of resources to schools to provide for special needs has been fraught with difficulty and the Department of Education and Science has not been able to deal adequately with the administration and allocation of resources to schools. There have been a number of different systems tried by the DES over the years and, last year, a new "weighted system" was proposed. This system divides special needs pupils into two categories: those with a "high incidence" disability such as specific learning disability, and those with a "low incidence" disability such as autism. Schools were to be given an automatic allowance of extra resource teaching hours for high incidence children based on statistical occurrence and would apply separately for low incidence children. A review of this proposed system was announced by the minister, Mary Hanafin, T.D. when it was realised that the ratios proposed would mean that many smaller schools and schools in disadvantaged areas would actually lose resources under the new plan. According to the DES, this review should be completed in the coming weeks. Minister Hanafin has stated that no pupil with special needs will lose resources. IPPN call for this review to be completed as a matter of urgency.

Principals are concerned that they will face yet another school year uncertain of what resources they will have for the new school year in September. Will they have to let Special Needs Assistants go? Will they lose teaching posts or be in a position to employ a new teacher?

"Although the school year starts in September, principals are planning this from April. They must know by then how many teachers they will have, what rooms they need, what extra resources or classroom assistants might be available in order to plan effectively" points out Seán Cottrell, Director of IPPN.

Very often, school principals cannot get a psychological assessment for a child and cannot, therefore, apply for resources. There are still many schools that do not have an adequate psychological service despite the establishment of NEPS (National Educational Psychological Service) in 1999. Many parents have had to pay privately for a psychological assessment for their child with special needs in order to secure extra help for their child. Many other parents cannot afford this. "Parents are worried that this proposed new system might actually make things worse and make it more difficult for schools to get extra help for their children" says Cottrell.

"Provision for children with special needs must be based on what pupils actually need in the classroom to experience quality learning and not on some arbitrary quota system based on a simplistic calculation assuming that all children are the same. A child with autism, for instance, may be in a multi grade class in a small rural school with a teaching principal or in a large urban school with a special autistic unit in place. Catering for the needs of the child is different in both cases and must be provided for accordingly."

Often, Principals are faced with the dilemma of allocating resources to one child while other children with equally pressing needs receive no extra support. This happens because of the administrative anomalies involved.

Every child sitting in a classroom today deserves the best learning experience that we can provide. In determining what resources and staffing a school needs, we must take into account that children are individuals with individual needs and not simply part of some statistical formula.

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