Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent)
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1339. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will review the need for time free from class teaching for primary school principals and allow at least one day a week with substitute cover, which would allow these principals the time to concentrate on the leading of teaching and learning in their schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32139/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Principal duties in medium to large sized schools are carried out by administrative principals.Principal duties in small to medium sized schools are carried out by teaching principals.

Circular 25/02 which is available on the Department website outlines the number of days that teaching principals may take as release time in a school year in order to assist them fulfilling their principal duties. Under these arrangements my Department pays for a substitute teacher to be employed by a school to facilitate administrative functions to be undertaken by the teaching principal. Under the current arrangements the number of days that principal teachers may take as release time in each school year ranges between 14 and 22 days depending on the size of the school.

Improving these arrangements so as to enable teaching principals to have one release day per week would cost of the order of €10 million per annum.

I am aware of the workload issue and the pressures on Principals teachers. My Department has done work at helping to ease the administrative burden on school principals. The development and introduction of the primary online database is a significant step forward in this regard. A further step forward was the recent publication of Department Circular 0033/2015 which updates and simplifies the manner in which primary schools can maintain pupil enrolment and attendance records following the introduction of the primary online database.

Economic constraints and the moratorium on recruitment albeit alleviated to some extent for schools, have presented challenges within the education sector. They also provide an opportunity to review the role of the principal so that our principals are leaders of learning, and to reconfigure the middle management structure to support principals in their role, ensuring ownership of responsibility rather than tasks, thereby building expertise and supporting a career path within the profession.

The Department, in consultation with the representative management bodies has commenced an exploration of the opportunities to support and thereby advance our understanding of the needs of school leaders and how they might be addressed.