Teachers are dealing with a lack of support and respect as they tackle this pandemic

Principals' roles are increasingly stressful and Covid has highlighted systemic failures we can no longer tolerate. It's time to speak out, writes Angela Dunne of the National Principals' Forum

Sun, 20 Dec, 2020 - 15:00

Angela Dunne

“The culture of any organisation is shaped by the worst behaviour the leader is willing to tolerate”, Steve Gruenert and Todd Whitaker, School Culture Rewired, ch. 3 (2015).

I write as one principal, but speak with the voices and concerns of many who are in a similar role to me across the country. We are not willing to tolerate the lack of support and disrespect with which educators are being subjected to by the Department of Education, and education stakeholders.

As school leaders, we are the day-to-day managers of our schools and as such are best-placed to know our school communities and their needs.

For many years now, ours has been an unsustainable and hugely stressful role, with all school leaders — particularly teaching principals — being placed under increasingly intolerable pressure.

Despite the many systemic failures we have to navigate daily, there is no doubt that principal teachers, along with our dedicated staff in their entirety, have always put our shoulders to the wheel and worked relentlessly to provide the best education possible for the pupils in our care — never more so than since Covid hit our shores.

We are keenly aware of the difficulties facing this country in Covid times, and the context in which we are trying to have our voices heard. We are trying to ensure that our schools are safe centres of education but also safe workplaces, while being told that health and safety guidance that applies to all other workplaces do not apply to us.

We want to be open, to remain open and to care for and educate our pupils, but we do not want this to happen at all costs. We cannot appease the current lack of regard for the lives in our schools. Not when there are safe and practical contingencies we can utilise in times of crisis.

The Department of Education has effectively incapacitated us with its lack of proactivity and recent dictats, and it is time to speak out.

The biggest problem facing educators is that our ability to provide a safe, effective, and inclusive education is severely hampered by a chronic lack of trust, respect, consultation, support, and communication by the Department of Education.

It seems that basic professional courtesy went out the window long ago, and we are left in a position where we are responsible for implementing educational policy which we have no input into, rarely get direct or timely communication on, have inadequate resources for, and receive little support when this inevitably fails to meet the needs of all pupils in our schools.

Vulnerable pupils

Our most vulnerable pupils are being failed by our education system time and again, not for the want of effort or advocacy by educators or these children’s families. Speaking out about these issues involves running the precarious gauntlet of public opinion, much of which is very poorly informed because of Government and media spin, kite-flying, and lack of transparency. Still, we cannot and will not let the fear of this silence us.

The onerous responsibilities of running our schools rest with the good, often scapegoated, people on voluntary boards of management (BOM) across the country. The contempt with which school leaders and management are treated by the DES and education stakeholders was never more evident as during Covid lockdowns, epitomised most recently in the shocking treatment of the Claremorris BNS principal and BOM.

No professional trust or respect was shown by the DES to this school, or the difficult but sensible decision they made for the good of their school community with the support of their parent body.

The wall of silence from education stakeholders purporting to represent schools and educators was deafening and inexcusable, but unfortunately not surprising.

The goodwill, which has been the wind beneath our education system’s wings, has been unremittingly sucked out of our system by successive disconnected, condescending, and disrespectful Governments and ministers.

The resultant misguided and unchallenged vitriol which educators have been subjected to throughout the past few months has been utterly demoralising. Enough is enough!

As school leaders and members of The National Principals’ Forum, we have been trying relentlessly for several years to have our voice heard in professional dialogue with the DES.

We have made several submissions to the joint Oireachtas education committee, with verifiable data attesting to the issues we seek to highlight and remedy, gathered from thousands of practising principal teachers across the country.

We have also made numerous appeals to education ministers to meet with us and discuss the serious issues maligning our primary education system. We understand that there is no magic wand, but for change to happen, it must start with the real issues being identified so that they can be meaningfully addressed.

Alas, the minister’s diary is always apparently too full.

Huge cost

Similarly, and inexplicably, our education stakeholder bodies — of which we are paying members — refuse to represent this data to the DES on our behalf. We do not accept that this is reasonable or fair. It is coming at a huge cost, not only the health and wellbeing of many principals, but also to our fragile and highly fractured education system.

We believe that it is incumbent on us to highlight the issues which are damaging our education system, many of which predate Covid, but are most certainly exasperated by the current pandemic.

In addition to prioritising the health and safety of our school communities, we need:

Respectful and timely communication, consultation, and fair representation;
Much greater supports for school leaders;
Much greater and fairer SEN (Special Education Needs) supports and truly inclusive opportunities for pupils with additional needs in their localities;
Adequate staffing in schools, that are reflective of the needs of individual schools and geographic areas;
The restoration of pay equality, the lack thereof which has eroded our workforce and morale;
Job regulation and fair terms for school SNAs, secretaries, cleaners, and caretakers — the vital backbone of our schools;
Transparency and honesty from the DES and NCSE in relation to school funding, SEN supports, and SNA allocations.

Each issue is complicated and beyond the scope of this article to expand upon, however our submissions in this regard can be viewed on our website.

Many politicians have made representation on our behalf to ministers in recent years, however the issues and questions they raise are swiftly met with empty soundbites and fiscal statistics, which perpetuate the myths around education, and so the situation continues to deteriorate.

This is about much more than persistent underinvestment. It is about the human cost of a 21st-century education system that is not fit for purpose.

Education is the key to success. So too is listening.

What education minister Norma Foley needs to hear will not come from the policymakers, or the myriad of stakeholder bodies — all with various agendas to validate their existence and not rock the boat. Minister Foley needs to hear from those of us at the helm, on the ground — where reality is experienced and navigated daily in our schools.

We are asking Minister Foley to meet with principal members of the National Principals’ Forum, listen to what we have to say, and let us plan and work le chéile to safeguard our school communities, pupils and staff.

We must work together to bridge the huge disconnect that currently exits between the DES and schools in order to look to the future with confidence and faith in our Government. This starts with professional integrity and honest conversation.

Angela Dunne is principal of Loughmore NS, Co Tipperary, and is a representative of the National Principals’ Forum.