Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for being here to take this Topical Issue matter. She will be aware of the burden falling on principals at the moment and of the additional pressures Covid has put on them right across the board, in primary schools, post-primary schools, special schools and so on. Consider those principals who are managing everything connected to Covid, managing the ordinary running of the school, managing the running of ASD units and also teaching a class or perhaps teaching more than one class.

There are 83 teaching principals in mainstream schools where there are special classes. Of these schools, 21 have two or more special classes. Those principals did not have to take on all the additional work in relation to that but they took the decision that their community needed these units and that they wanted to serve those needs. They deserve commendation for that but the fact is that these principals, in particular, are under inordinate pressure and that has implications for their schools.

I spoke to one teaching principal in a mainstream school just outside of Mallow in County Cork. They have two special classes and they communicated to me how demanding the role of a teaching principal is generally, while also managing these classes. On paper, and for the Department, this looks like a four-teacher school, but the reality is this principal manages a team of 18 staff members, including four teachers, two special education teachers, two ASD class teachers and six special needs assistants, SNAs, as well as whatever they have to do in terms of bus escorts. There is a fair bit of work in that, on top of managing the curriculum and the school and ensuring it all works. This has all become even more difficult.

The children who missed out most during lockdown were those with special needs. The burden on these schools is enormous and we need to do something about this. We need to relieve the pressure on these teachers.

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