Primary schools should be run by experts not parents, say principals

SCHOOLS should be run by properly trained experts rather than parents and volunteers who are forced into places on management boards, a principals’ group said yesterday.

The Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN) told the Oireachtas Committee on Education and Science that there must be a radical overhaul of primary school boards. They asked that the cross-party committee recommend that Education Minister Mary Hanafin set up an independent review body.

Currently all primary school boards must have a representative of teachers, parents and the school patron, in most cases the local bishop.