Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Deputy's interest in this issue because the role of leaders in our schools is hugely important and I wish to give him some reassurance. We have successfully recruited 6,000 additional teachers to our schools in the last three years and as the Deputy knows, the standards of reading and mathematics among our ten years olds are the best in Europe. We have a great deal to be grateful for around the manner in which our schools are managed. That does not mean that we should stand still and I have set an ambitious target that by 2026 we will seek to have the best education and training service in Europe. That means improvements in literacy, digital technologies and the learning environment, breaking down cycles of disadvantage and reforming curricula to update them and make them more relevant to people. That involves change and we of course rely on principals to be the leaders of change within their schools.

I mention some of the measures we have taken, for example, last year we appointed 2,600 additional assistant principals. Not only have we done that but we negotiated an agreement with the trade unions on a new approach to management which involves a more devolved and collective leadership. It also involves reporting on the role that these assistant principals will take within their schools and will move away from appointments based on an approach of one's turn having come around. We have also made a substantial investment in primary education which has helped principals in having additional resources at their disposal and I have mentioned some of these in the written reply. We have reduced the pupil-teacher ratio to the lowest level ever in the history of the State and we have provided over 600 resource teachers and over 1,800 special needs assistants, SNAs. Hundreds of schools are now operating innovative projects in clusters where principals and others within the school are taking on leadership roles in adopting technology and applying DEIS initiatives and creative initiatives.

On teaching principals specifically, this year I allocated additional time off to allow them to manage their responsibilities more effectively. I increased it by between two and four days depending on the size of the school as is outlined in the written reply. Extra time off has been a continuing demand from teaching principals.

The other thing I did, which came directly from the INTO because its former president was impressed by the initiative, was to introduce clusters. There were 14 clusters in existence which meant that more remote schools could come together in a cluster and pool their time off, which allowed them to employ a permanent position. It has been really beneficial. I have extended the number of clusters from 14 to 50.

The biggest thing, which the Deputy did not refer to at all, is the creation of the centre for school leadership, which is now investing in the leaders in our schools. Each year about 1,000 principals get the opportunity to have mentoring or coaching or to gain postgraduate qualifications to improve their capacity to manage their resource. They are very significant changes. As the Deputy rightly observed, many principals feel there is too much coming at them. They recognise the importance of child protection, new curricula and new ways of teaching. All of these things are important. We have set up a forum to look at the sequencing of those things to try to allow them to manage those issues. In terms of pay, principals are benefitting under the pay agreement. I absolutely support the Deputy's belief that investing in leadership is possibly the best bang for our buck we can get. We have started to put in place measures that show our commitment in this area.

See this speech in context