Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 July 2019
437. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Education and Skills if additional release days for teaching principals will be provided for in budget 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32012/19]
View answerI recently hosted a symposium on Small Schools which gave me an opportunity to restate the Government’s commitment to small schools and to open a dialogue with all the key stakeholders.
The purpose of this work by the Department is to develop a policy proposal to help support and strengthen small primary schools throughout the country.
Since my appointment as Minister for Education and Skills I have met with a number of Teaching Principals, including at this year’s IPPN conference, and I appreciate the pressures they face.
In Budget 2019, school leadership is again supported with an additional release day for teaching principals in primary schools and a further four additional release days for teaching principals in schools with special classes. These additional release days - 18, 24, and 30 depending on the size of the school - will be effective from 1st September 2019.
This builds on measures in previous budgets, including €0.4 million made available in Budget 2018 to fund almost 4600 additional release days for teaching principals in primary schools. This funding provided 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.
Any additional increase in the number of release days will have to be considered as part of the annual budgetary process, alongside the many other demands in the education sector.
