Mr. Clive Byrne:

I thank the Chairman for inviting us to appear before the committee. I am joined by Ms Mary Nihill, the principal of Calasanctius College in Galway.

In addition, Ms Kay O'Brien, who is in the gallery, is the deputy principal of Kells community school and a past president of the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals, NAPD.
The National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals is the professional association for second-level school leaders in Ireland and provides a united voice for principals and deputy principals on issues of common concern across all three second-level sectors, namely, the voluntary secondary, community and comprehensive and the education and training boards, ETBI, sectors. One of the stated objectives of the NAPD is to support the professional development of school leaders. School leadership and the appropriate management structures are critical to the delivery of a world-class education system to children. Schools are large and diverse organisations with a wide range of different challenges and problems. Like all such organisations, Ireland's schools will not achieve their goals and objectives unless the correct management structures are in place. The NAPD believes there is a crisis of school leadership because of cutbacks and the failure to invest in management structures in the schools. While there are excellent people involved in school management, regrettably the management structures that currently apply in schools are not to the highest standards. Essentially, the middle management system in schools is not fit for purpose and the reason for this is there are insufficient middle management structures within schools to facilitate the changing nature of school activity and the increased demands on school leaders. Equally, there is no industry standard for professional development and promotion upon which to build such structures. These issues are outlined in greater detail in the NAPD's submission, which has been supplied to the joint committee.
In short, the problems stem from a lack of resources to develop effective management structures, the current system, which has developed in an ad hocand unstructured way, as well as the lack of a grand plan to develop effective leadership within schools. The lack of investment and resources to develop effective management structures is not unique to education. However, there is no reason the current system cannot be reformed in particular to ensure a more effective system of allocating posts of responsibility, of providing a set pathway for promotion of teachers to such posts and finally, for developing a long-term strategy to achieve the leadership objectives. The current economic situation limits the capacity to implement a whole new school management structure at present. However, it does not limit the ability to develop a new management architecture and nor does it prevent a real start being made on reforming the way in which schools are managed by ensuring that all future post appointments are in accordance with the new paradigm, once the latter is put in place.
The NAPD has five chief recommendations to tackle the challenges of school management in 21st-century Ireland. In the first instance, we propose that a centre for leadership planning, with ongoing professional supports, should be established. There must be ongoing professional development support for principals in order to attract, develop and sustain school leaders. At a time when more than two thirds of school leaders at second level have less than five years' experience, this is crucial. The NAPD proposes that a centre for leadership and planning be established, which would involve the principals' professional associations, expertise built up over many years by the leadership and planning arm of Professional Development Service for Teachers, PDST, and its forerunners, namely, the leadership development for schools programme and the school development programme, as well as other education partners, third level educational institutions and the Department of Education and Skills, chiefly through its teacher education section.
Second, the NAPD also believes the implementation of the recommendations of the Blackstock report, which dealt with second-level school funding, the McGuinness report, which dealt with second-level school staffing, the McIver report, which dealt with further education and the Martin report, which dealt with discipline, would help schools to put in place an administrative structure to meet the needs of the 21st century. While these reports made specific recommendations for funding, staffing, infrastructure and support structures, they have yet to be implemented. The NAPD's third point is that the Department of Education and Skills must implement the current circular at assistant principal level, that is, one per 100 or part thereof at a rate of 0.2 whole-time equivalents per 100 students and that this time be returned to the school to provide additional time for pastoral roles for the assistant principals.
Fourth, we call for the establishment of a steering committee that would drive reform. It should have a particular link to the Professional Development Service for Teachers and the Department of Education and Skills should form this committee comprising representatives from its teacher education section and inspectorate, the education centres, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA, the management bodies, the leadership and planning arm of PDST, as well as representation from the Teaching Council. Our fifth point is that because things happen as they do in Ireland's education system, we must learn from other performing education systems. For example, the school management system in New South Wales is one of the world's best examples of how post-primary schools could be managed. In the majority of schools, each principal has at least two assistant or deputy principals working under him or her. One is responsible for student welfare and the other for school curriculum. All appointments to middle management posts are made on the basis of capacity to undertake duties associated with this specific post to a high standard.
In conclusion, it is clear that the current post-primary school management system is in clear need of the three Rs, namely, reform, resources and restructuring. School leaders today cannot cope with every evolving demand of the 21st-century post-primary school environment. We owe it to our students to have properly qualified principals in schools who are not overburdened due to an onerous workload. What started as a problem more than a decade ago has developed into a full-blown crisis today. School leaders can have a direct impact on student outcomes as they progress through second-level education. School leaders can provide the leadership of learning to students and can act as the school system's primary agents of change. School leaders can ensure a supportive and orderly environment for students to learn and to thrive. Failure to act on this does a disservice to my colleague principals and deputy principals, to teachers and parents and ultimately, to the students. Ireland's schools must be managed to the highest professional standards to facilitate the quality education to which our children are entitled and I urge the joint committee to give serious consideration to the NAPD's proposals.