Mr. Páiric Clerkin:

I thank the Chairman and will try to cover as many of them as possible. I have taken notes and members can come back to me if I leave out anything. I thank Deputy Thomas Byrne for drawing attention to the photograph, which tells more of the story than anything else. If I were to bring in a photograph of a teaching principal in a special school, it would highlight another critical situation as it would include a multiple of the individuals in the photograph we have seen. It is important that we acknowledge the situation of our leaders in special schools and the complex situations they deal with as teaching principals.

With regard to the well-being of teachers and principals, it is true we are and have been focused on this. We are now focused on the well-being of children. Our organisations have been very proactive on this issue in recent years. We have had a well-being for teachers and learners group, that comprised the Irish Primary Principals Network, the national association for principals and deputy principals at second level, the national parents council and the Ombudsman for Children. The focus has been on how do we promote well-being in the school environment throughout the entire school and including parents. Recently some of our schools made very good presentations to our international colleagues who visited the country.

We need to ensure this becomes a culture and is not seen as another initiative. Our concern is about something being seen as an initiative that is forced on schools, rather than us all working together to try to create a culture. The work of the well-being for teachers and learners group is focused on the cultural aspiration of trying to create a well-being culture throughout schools. As has been pointed out today, an issue all schools are dealing with is how to do this when every week, something new is being thrown at schools and where they are focused on immediate concerns.

It is true we link with our colleagues in Northern Ireland, the National Association of Head Teachers, NAHT, and it was pointed out they have one release day a week. We call them leadership and management days because that is their focus. They are about leadership and management, with a focus on leading teaching and learning. Our colleagues in Northern Ireland have one day a week and many of them have two days a week. The difference between our system and theirs is that in the North, the schools themselves decides how their budget will be focused and whether they will invest in two days. Many schools in Northern Ireland have up to two days.

With regard to why we are not focused on full-time administrative status for all principals, I cannot disagree with it but we are trying to focus on what we feel is achievable. This has been our number one priority since 2015. I will state again that administrative principals and teaching principals are at one on what is the top priority for leaders in the primary school sector, which is aspiring to the one day a week we feel is achievable at present. We need to have a debate on going beyond this. We link in with our international colleagues and constantly look at how they cope in their various systems. This is a much bigger debate and something we need to look at in great detail.

Workload and recruitment are crucial and I am concerned about them. It is not just about leaders in schools at present. There is an onus on all of us as leaders in schools to build capacity and promote the positions of principalship and school leaders. It is crucial that we have future school leaders. Our organisation is concerned about teachers perceiving the principalship in their school as being undoable or something that is undesirable. If that is the case, we really will have a concern into the future about attracting the best leaders into crucial school leadership positions. As an organisation, we have been proactive in lobbying and campaigning for the Department to bring together all of the stakeholders to discuss the reform agenda, which we call the calendar of reform. We want all the parties to discuss what will be on the calendar of reform and agree what our priority should be over the coming year or two.

We want to ensure the workload handed over to school leaders, schools, teachers and children is sustainable and that we do not just focus on implementation. We in this country are too focused on implementation and we do not focus enough on embedding. Implementing policies and changes without embedding them is a waste of everybody's time. We need to ensure long-term benefits for the children in any changes we implement. We should have a discussion on whether we are sure all of the reforms we are introducing are being embedded in the system and that we are not just ticking a box and focusing on implementation. Through the groups coming together, and having a focus group and a calendar of reform whereby all of the various stakeholders sit down together and discuss this, we could bring improvements to the system and raise awareness of the challenges being faced by our school leaders.

Stepping back is simply not facilitated by the Department. Currently, if people want to step back from a leadership position they are asked to take up the most junior position on the staff. It is demeaning and does not respect what they have done over a 15 or 20 year period. We need to show greater value for our school leaders. We need a debate on how to facilitate somebody who wishes to step back from the position. This will be important with regard to encouraging others to take on the role. We will have plenty of individuals willing to take on the role for a period of time. We need to facilitate a step back if they want to go back into teaching at some stage.