The creation of up to 500 new administrative posts to help ease the burden of school principals is being explored by the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey.
The Minister said it made little sense for trained and experienced primary teachers to be spending much of their day completing non-educational tasks.
He was receptive to the idea of creating new administrative posts to supplement the work of principals. The school principal could concentrate on school leadership, discipline, curriculum and other issues, he said. By contrast, the school administrator could focus on school finances and the bureaucracy associated with the day-to-day running of a school.
Asked about the resource implications of creating up to 500 new posts, the Minister said this would have to be weighed against the cost to the State of taking trained teachers out of the classroom. It was never a good idea to train people in a particular area and then divert them to something else, he said.
Mr Dempsey was responding to complaints from the Irish Primary Principals Network that many school principals are overwhelmed with bureaucracy. A report - presented at the IPPN conference - found that 70 per cent of principals are struggling as teaching principals. The report records a serious fall-off in the level of interest in vacancies at principal level. A major factor, it said, was the lack of clarity regarding the expectations and boundaries of the role."
The main recommendations of the report include the need for:
Fundamental reform and modernisation of structures;
Greater clarity about the respective roles of principals and school boards of management;
An examination of the balance between teaching and principal duties;
The development of middle management in schools.
The IPPN is a professional association but it has no negotiating rights. These are held by the INTO. The IPPN claims to represent two-thirds of all primary principals and deputy principals. Addressing the final day of the IPPN conference in Galway yesterday, its director, Mr Sean Cottrell, called on the INTO to be effective "watchdogs" in relation to principals and deputy principals pay and conditions. The IPPN has claimed the INTO stood idly by, a charge rejected yesterday by INTO general secretary, Mr John Carr.
He said the INTO sought the review group on the role of the principal which set out the blueprint for change in primary administration. "In the recent past the INTO has achieved a substantial increase in the number of release days for teaching principals in order that administrative duties may be undertaken."
He also said reduction has been achieved in the number of teachers required to appoint an administrative principal. This has involved the creation of a significant number of new posts.