Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

223. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of teaching principals in County Kildare; and the schools that have teaching principals. [30420/18]

Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

224. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of teaching principals in County Laois; and the schools that have teaching principals. [30421/18]

Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

225. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of teaching principals in County Offaly; and the schools that have teaching principals. [30422/18]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 223 to 225, inclusive, together.

The Irish education system has certain characteristics that have influenced the evolution of the Principal’s role. The distribution of the population necessitates a relatively large number of small primary schools. In the case of Principals in smaller schools, while management and administrations duties may be smaller in scale than those of larger schools, they must be undertaken in addition to their full-time teaching duties.

The enrolment required for administrative principal in ordinary schools, gaelscoileanna and schools in the Gaeltacht is 176 pupils, or 113 if operating a specialist autism unit.

Schools that have less than this enrolment have teaching principals. Recently published Circular 40/2018 is available on the Department’s website, which 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.

Building on measures in previous budgets to enhance school leadership, Budget 2018 made €0.4 million available to fund almost 4600 additional release days for teaching principals in primary schools. This additional funding will see an increase in the number of release days available to teaching principals in the 2018/19 school year to 17, 23 or 29 days depending on the size of the school.

Budget 2017 allowed for the commencement of restoration of middle management posts as part of an agreed distributed leadership model and meant lifting the rigidity of the longstanding moratorium on these posts at primary and post-primary levels. This recognises the key role school leadership has in promoting a school environment which is welcoming, inclusive and accountable.

€2.75m was allocated in Budget 2017 to restore middle management positions i.e. the equivalent of approximately 1,300 middle management posts (Assistant Principal I and Assistant Principal II) at both Primary and Post-Primary. (2,600 in total).

The selection and recruitment process is well under way in most of our primary schools and the majority of these new middle management posts will be filled in the current school year, including schools where the Principal is a "Teaching Principal".

Circular 63/2017 was issued by the Department in September 2017 which deals and sets out a leadership and management framework for posts in recognised primary schools.

While the Principal is ultimately responsible to the Board of Management for the management and leadership of the school, the Deputy Principal occupies a position of vital importance within the senior leadership team in each school. The Deputy Principal co-operates with the Principal in the fulfilment of the Principal's role and acts or deputises as the Principal in the Principal's absence.

In relation to the duties assigned to Assistant Principal posts, the Principal following consultation with staff, agree the schedule of duties as best meet the needs of the school. These duties are designed to reduce the workload of the Principal.

I recently announced an extension to the arrangements for schools with teaching principals to cluster their release days into full-time posts, with one teacher covering the release days of all the schools in the cluster. Up to 50 principal release cluster posts will be put in place for the 2018/19 school year. This measure will assist teaching principals to more effectively plan their release days for the benefit of the school.

Any additional increase in the number of release days will be considered as part of the next annual budgetary process alongside the many other demands from the education sector.

Attached is the breakdown of the number of teaching principals in primary schools in Kildare, Laois and Offaly, as requested.

Number of schools with teaching principals

Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

226. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of school principals that have stepped down over the past five years in County Kildare; and the number that were teaching principals. [30423/18]

Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

227. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of school principals that have stepped down over the past five years in County Laois; and the number that were teaching principals. [30424/18]

Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

228. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of school principals that have stepped down over the past five years in County Offaly; and the number that were teaching principals. [30425/18]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 226 to 228, inclusive, together.

Principal teachers are employed by the managerial authorities of their schools and the information required for their payment on payrolls operated by my Department is provided by them. The information is provided on standardised forms which are completed by authorised representatives in the school.

A Data Protection Privacy Statement is included on these forms. The Data Statement outlines that the main purpose for which my Department requires the personal data provided is the payment of wages. It is also required for the payment of pension at retirement.

The information is retained on databases to ensure the correct payment of the teaching staff paid by my Department and employed in the schools on an ongoing basis.

The information requested by the Deputy could only be obtained from these databases. Statistics broken down by individual counties is not available.

A statistical analysis of the aggregated data requested for voluntary secondary community and comprehensive schools indicated that less than one per cent of individuals who continued in teaching were paid the allowance in one school year and not in the next. The statistics show that all of these Principals were Administrative Principals.

A statistical analysis of the aggregated data requested for primary schools indicated that 2.8% of individuals who continued in teaching were paid the allowance in one school year and not in the next. The statistics also show that 2.6% of these individuals were teaching Principals.

The reasons for individuals whom continue to teach but no longer receive a Principals allowance is not captured by our databases.