As the events of the past school year unfolded, it became patently obvious that the role played by schools in Irish society is totally undervalued, misunderstood and, at times, unappreciated. Yet, astonishingly, an increasingly pervasive mind-set envisages the school as the panacea for all ills and the target for all solutions that have either failed or should be directed elsewhere.

The National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD) tried during the year to articulate the impact a changed society is having on the life of students and on the life and needs of schools. But few were willing to listen or wanted to heard.

As the year evolved, the association became acutely aware of the responsibility of professional leaders to address the challenges facing schools in a changed Ireland. Thus the genesis of this week's NAPD conference.

The two plenary sessions of the conference will address different aspects of the challenges facing schools. Dr Vincent Moloney, consultant psychiatrist and clinical director will look at implications for schools of a changed society. Dr Robert Rowthorn, professor of economics and fellow of Kings's College, Cambridge, will discuss family policy in the modern world - an economist's case for marriage.

An NAPD committee on arts and culture (Fo-Cho∅ste Eala∅ne agus Cult·rtha) will present their report on "The Arts in Our Schools" to the conference. During the past year, the committee surveyed schools and made submissions on the proposal to establish an Irish Academy for the Performing Arts (IAPA) and on the review of arts legislation. These submissions called for radical changes in the curriculum, based on the contention that dance, music and drama "cannot be learnt in conventional ways that suit many academic disciplines". Findings of the deliberations are keenly awaited.

A series of workshops will address areas of special concern and interest to principals and deputy principals. Their diversity reflects the complexity of school life today:

- legal and human resource issues relating to recruitment and interviewing;

- school integration of non-nationals/refugees: the Swedish experience;

- student councils;

- school admission, suspension and exclusion policies;

- adult education - the Irish and Swedish models;

- further education - the fastest growing sector in Irish education;

- gaelscoileanna;

- public-private partnership - a new concept in Irish education.

The business sessions of the conference will debate many of the day-to-day concerns of principals and deputy principals. In December 2000, NAPD asked the Minister for Education and Science to set up a forum to review the needs of schools in the 21st century. In the interim, this conference will, once again, devote valuable time to discussing the reality of the situation at school level, where our post-primary schools remain in crisis.

Supervision and substitution - issues that should have been addressed contractually many years ago - remain unresolved. Students have a totally inadequate guidance and counselling service. Schools fight an annual, degrading battle for the provision of services for students with special needs and disabilities. Technical back-up for IT remain a pious aspiration. Lack of suitable subject-matched substitution and the on-going erosion of the school year are making schools increasingly unmanageable, seriously disadvantaging all students and adversely affecting the quality of teaching and learning in our schools.

Secretarial and care-taking services are completely inadequate. A plethora of new legislation and directives (much of it welcome) now governs the life of the school - with scant regard for the implications in terms of personnel and resources. And yes, principalship too is in crisis, with many advertised posts not attracting a single applicant.

International management consultants Hay McBer, in their report to the British House of Commons select committee on education (1998) asserted that "highly effective head teachers were the highest performing leaders when compared to other groups of senior managers in public and private sector organisations".

The consultants also stated that "the role of the head is one of the most demanding that we have ever encountered because of the sheer range of management and leadership accountabilities". It would be scarcely unreasonable, therefore, to expect the assessment of the professional leaders of the education system to be anything less than fair, concerned and student focused.

Opinions and judgments are not formed or articulated lightly or with undue haste. So when, year after year, the business sessions of the national conference return with repeated monotony to the same unresolved issues, it is scarcely unreasonable to reiterate that schools are in crisis.

If the reaction to the voice of professional leadership continues to be one of indifference, dismissal and "shoot the messenger", that can scarcely be surprising.

However, n∅ binn bΘal ina thost! (Silence is no longer golden!) So, during the coming days in Galway, perhaps the NAPD needs to discover some more effective means of communication than that of reasoned analysis and professional dialogue.

NAPD Conference 2001 runs from Thursday to Saturday in Galway