Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 June 2015
529. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Education and Skills if she will reintroduce posts of responsibility for primary schools; if she will provide details of the cost of this; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24562/15]
View answerEconomic constraints and the moratorium on filling posts of responsibility, 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.
Rather than simply looking at re-introducing posts of responsibility it is important to carefully consider the needs of school leaders and how they might be addressed. The Department is engaging with the management bodies at post-primary level on this issue and will, in due course, also engage with the management bodies at primary level.
I am aware of the workload issue and the pressures on Principal 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 publication recently 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.
