Schools with principal teachers ‘lose out’
Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN) president Tomás Ó Slatara said the country’s 2,500 teaching principals have to dedicate at least half an hour a day to administrative duties.
“If you add up all the hours and minutes’ teaching lost in the classes of teaching principals, you get a startling picture. The loss of a half hour per day teaching time could accumulate over the full school year to as much as 20 school days,” he said.
Ahead of the organisation’s annual conference which begins in Dublin today, Mr Ó Slatara said there was ample evidence that these children were at a disadvantage. He was speaking from 23 years of experience as a teaching principal in a small school.
Only around 800 primary principals, in schools with at least seven teachers, are exempt from teaching duties and are contracted solely as school administrators.
“There is a real challenge for principal teachers who, as well as teaching their pupils, have to deal with the many tasks and interruptions to their teaching because they are also leading and managing their schools,” Mr Ó Slatara said.
“There are many routine and unavoidable interruptions on a daily basis, such as dealing with a leaking roof, talking to a parent, meeting the school inspector, taking a telephone call or organising a substitute teacher for an absent colleague. Each one of these tasks may be vitally important and may have to be done at any time during the school day,” he said.
He said this was one of a number of issues raised in a report commissioned by the network, but which is gathering dust on the shelves of those with the power to change the situation.
