Principals call for better State guidance

PRINCIPALS have told the Education Department that they need more assistance and guidance to design the growing number of policies which schools are legally required to adopt.

The National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD) said the publication by Education Minister Mary Hanafin of five templates to help schools formulate policies on important issues such as bullying, drugs and safe internet use is a welcome step towards easing the workload faced by its members.

But NAPD director Mary McGlynn said these templates need to be amended regularly to keep schools up to date with new legal requirements.

“There should also be policies on things like data protection, which is becoming a bigger issue every year as pressure grows for access to different information,” Ms McGlynn said.

Ms Hanafin made a commitment to primary and second-level principals when she took office in late 2004 that she would make efforts to ease their administrative workload and allow them concentrate on the educational aspects of their work.

Among her promises was the production of policy templates to help meet the increasing demands on schools as a result of statutory and regulatory requirements.

The five documents she placed on the Department of Education website yesterday will assist second-level schools in revising and updating policies on bullying, child protection, guidance, internet safety and substance abuse.

“The templates provided are not prescriptive and it is very important that a school’s policies should take account of the specific circumstances and environment in which each school operates,” Ms Hanafin said.

“We intend to continue working with the education partners to produce further support materials which will contribute to easing the administrative burden on schools.”

Following the worrying results of a survey earlier this week about young people’s internet usage, Ms Hanafin said schools have a particularly important role in providing their students with high standards of care in order to promote their well-being and protect them from harm.