‘Primary school principals are overloaded with work’

THE growing responsibilities and stresses experienced by three-quarters of the State’s primary school principals who must also work as full-time class teachers will be highlighted today.

The Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN), which represents the majority of the country’s 3,200 primary schools, will detail the increased difficulties in recruiting and retaining principals at a meeting with the Oireachtas Education and Science Committee.

In a list of 20 barriers to recruiting and retaining primary school principals, the IPPN will outline the “growing impossibility of the role of principal due to overload of work and responsibilities”.