Principals: Government cannot ignore schools funding and recruitment crisis

The Government cannot continue to ignore the major funding and recruitment crisis facing schools.

The National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals is warning a shortage of leaders is the next emergency in education.

Around 600 delegates at its conference in Kilkenny today will hear of how the issue is contributing to workloads and impacting on their health.

President of the NAPD, Kieran Golden, says Minister Joe McHugh needs to take urgent action.

He said: "What we're strongly recommending is that a working group is convened to examine and quantify the impact of the workload on our school leaders.

"NAPD recommends that an interim report should be available by April 2020 and a full report should be presented at conference 2020 outlining the findings, and very significantly the recommendations as well."