Retirements will cause crisis in pastoral care, managers warn

SUPPORT systems for students will be further hit as a result of a looming schools management crisis caused by a raft of early retirements, second-level managers have warned.

Although the Department of Education is allowing schools to fill some assistant principal posts left vacant when staff retire, second-level boards are bracing themselves for problems in maintaining pastoral care systems for students.

Schools are not allowed to fill management vacancies below principal and deputy-principal grade except in very limited circumstances, as part of the moratorium on public service recruitment and promotions.