School principals are drowning in a sea of administration claims Offaly TD

SCHOOL principals in Offaly and throughout the state are being inundated with Department of Education circulars leading to increased levels of professional burnout and the embedding of a bureaucratic nightmare which they cannot adequately manage due to a lack of departmental supports. That’s according to Independent TD for Offaly Carol Nolan.

Deputy Nolan raised the overwhelming level of ‘paperwork’ and administration being demanded of school management, and specifically of teaching principals, during a special Topical Issues debate with the Minister for Education and Youth, Helen McEntee in the Dáil on Wednesday evening. The debate was taken on Minister McEntee’s behalf by Emer Higgins, Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation:

“Principals have been calling for a slow-down of the flood of departmental circulars for the last 20 years, and during that time the department has effectively responded with minor tweaks and an underwhelming roll-out of management supports. That is totally unacceptable,” said Deputy Nolan.

“We really need to get to grips with this. I showed Minister Higgins a document entitled Primary School Leadership: The Case for Urgent Action - A Roadmap to Sustainability published by the Network of Principals and Deputy Principals (IPPN).”

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That report is extremely revealing. It highlights that there is an inordinate and disproportionate focus on managing the school organisation and that this disproportionate increase in focus on managing the organisation without a corresponding increase in management supports and resources undermines the capacity of school principals to deliver greater focus on leading teaching and learning. This confirms what I have also been hearing during my regular engagement with the National Principals Forum (NPF).”

“We have to ask ourselves what is the core function of a school? Is it to deliver education or is to act as a box ticking hub where principals spend most of their working week dealing with the many, many demands emanating from departmental circulars?”

“We must allow schools to be schools. We must support our principals and deputy principals. If we don’t then the burnout rate will increase, the profession will become increasingly unappealing and our children will ultimately be the ones who lose most,” concluded Deputy Nolan.

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