Mr. Enda McGorman:

I thank the Cathaoirleach for the question. It is a real question for us as school leaders at primary level. There are two priorities for school leaders at primary level, from a leadership development point of view. The point about the role of the teaching principal has to made as well. Up to 40% of our schools have teaching principals, meaning that the principal in those schools has teaching duties, as well as the deputy principal. It would be remiss of me to address this issue without addressing that as well. It is not just large schools that need the support of an administrative deputy principal. If you are a teaching principal in-role as a teacher, you have all of the responsibilities is that have been laid out here as well. Chaos and stress do not choose when they arrive on a particular day. All human life is represented in our schools. Our teaching principals are right at the coalface concerning this issue.

On administrative status for deputy principals, again, our post-primary cousins have been very successful in raising that and having that addressed as an issue. We have had to balance between a call for administrative deputy principals and support for our teaching principals, who get one administrative day a week now. That is something for which we were fighting for years. As a result of the pandemic, it was given and we have retained it. However, that does not diminish the call for administrative deputy principals. If we were to ask the why of it here at this committee, it is about supporting the co-ordination of special education needs because it has become so complex at primary level. It has become the catch-all for everything. Special education needs has been used to cover every single thing we have talked about here, as well as the cognitive developmental issues that children have in mainstream education and their educational needs. If we were to make a recommendation around this, it would be to support the co-ordination of special education needs. That would be one massive area which could encompass or include or allow for the management of special education needs as part of the role of an administrative deputy principal.

It is down to economics, resources and priorities at the end of the day. The Department will consider an administrative deputy principal in very large schools, but we would be anxious for that to be pulled down. If there are schools where there are more than two special classes or a class for children with autism, those schools also get administrative deputy principals. The principle has been conceded and it is down to budget and priorities, ultimately, as to how it is allocated on a year-to-year basis. Certainly, every year the IPPN makes submissions as part of the budgetary submission in relation to our teaching principals and administrative status for larger schools as well.