Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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427. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to roll out the new administrative executive roles scheme for schools as a pilot scheme in County Kerry to support and strengthen schools there, to help principals and teachers across the county, reduce the huge admin burden; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [65939/25]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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The Programme for Government includes commitments to trial administrative supports and review leadership supports. To deliver on the commitments in the Programme for Government, my department has implemented an Action Research Project to trial new administrative supports and arrangements for principals and boards of management to reduce the non-educational aspect of their workloads. These new posts have the working title of Administrative Executives and are being trialed in six schools – three primary and three post primary.

My officials have engaged with education stakeholders from primary and post-primary on the principles, design and practicalities of the trial. This stakeholder engagement will continue throughout the trial. As part of the project design, the selection of schools was guided by a broad set of considerations. The objective was to capture, to the extent possible, a range of school types in terms of size, governance structures, DEIS status, and special class provision. Six schools were selected in Cork, Dublin, Longford, Roscommon and Galway.

Independent evaluators have been appointed to establish the impact and feasibility of such roles and test job specifications. The evaluation will also identify the impact of the posts on school leadership teams. The evaluation will also aid in identifying what external administrative supports are required that schools could draw on.

In addition to the Action Research Project on Administrative Executives, the Programme for Government provides for a number of measures to support small schools including trialing new administrative supports. The Government is very aware that small schools are an important part of the life of local communities. The Small Schools Project has two trial administrative support roles in place, in both the Gort and Donegal Clusters, to ease the administrative burden on teaching principals.

This work will build on and complement the work being undertaken to look at the issue of school leadership and governance both at primary and post-primary level, to better support all school leaders and school communities.