Offaly school principals "drowning in a sea of administrative demands"

A local TD has told the Dáil the education system needs to be reformed to reduce the current level of administrative demands placed on school principals.

Speaking in the national parliament yesterday (Tuesday), Carol Nolan said she "met with many school principals in my own county of Offaly" who had told her about the extent of the administrative pressures they were currently facing.

"They have told me that their workload is excessive, that it is continues to be extremely bureaucratic, and that it is leading to burnout.

"Many principals cannot focus on teaching and learning because they are pulled in so many different directions with administration," said Deputy Nolan.

"Principals have pointed out to me that their management does not just extend to the school team - that is, the mainstream teachers and pupils - because they also have EAL teachers, SNAs and many ancillary staff coming in and out of the school.

"This is an issue we really need to get grips with or we are going to see an exodus of principals, especially teaching principals, from our schools."

She said the need for a review of the Department of Education's special education allocation model had been raised on a number of occasions, and she backed calls for change in this regard.

"It is putting serious pressure on primary school principals, who are often left scrambling for resources to meet the needs of students with complex needs," she said.

Responding on behalf of the Government, Minister of State Emer Higgins said a "review of leadership supports" in schools was in the pipeline.

"To ensure our school leaders are supported in an increasingly complex environment both now and into the future, Department officials are examining how best to support school leaders," said Minister of State Higgins.

"A review of leadership supports is currently in development, as committed to in the programme for Government... This review will examine current resourcing, distributed leadership, administrative and advisory supports, and professional learning supports for school leaders."

She added that the review would be informed by "extensive consultation with stakeholders".

Deputy Nolan welcomed the Minister's response, but called for urgent steps to be taken to address "the current bureaucratic nightmare" facing principals.

"To give the Minister of State an idea of how bureaucratic this is becoming, since 2006 an average of 44 circulars have been issued to schools," said Deputy Nolan.

"That is a huge workload to land on any principal's desk, and that is just one layer of the workload that exists. We should look at the small schools scheme, roll it out nationally, extend it to more schools and support teachers."