Primary principals warn education system is on ‘verge of breaking’ as teacher supply issues bite

The education system is “on the verge of breaking” as school leaders grapple with teacher shortages, growing workloads and governance issues, according to the representative body for primary school principals.

Louise Tobin, president of the Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN), said a new survey of more than 1,000 members has uncovered alarming findings such as growing levels of stress and burnout among principals.

“To be honest, I am personally shocked at all the early retirements I see in schools around me – and if they don’t retire early, the minute they have their years done, they are gone,” Ms Tobin told the IPPN’s annual conference in Killarney.

“This is surely not a good sign of our primary teaching profession, in terms of continuity and keeping invaluable, experienced people in the sector.”

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Ms Tobin said principals no longer have the time to lead teaching and learning in schools, as a result.

The survey findings, she said, illustrate that levels of burnout and depressive symptoms are almost twice that of the normal healthy working population, and have worsened significantly since the last survey n 2015.

She said the teacher supply “crisis” has added to the workload facing principals who regularly struggle to find substitutes s to cover for teachers.

[ Schools warn they may have to keep classes at home due to teacher shortages ]

[ ‘Unprecedented’ teacher shortages at primary level hits most vulnerable pupils ]

Ms Tobin called on the Government to deliver on a range of support and reforms to ensure the role of pimrary principals is more sustainable.

This includes a shared leadership model and a “fit-for-purpose” school governance structure to relieve some of the administrative burden facing school leaders.

“Of course we would like to focus on the children in our school; on our duty of care to them; on our vision to ensure continuity and the best education provision for them – not on administration, school finances and certainly not on huge building projects,” she said.

Speaking at the conference, Department of Education secretary general Bernie McNally acknowledged that teacher supply was among the biggest challenges facing teachers.

“We know for some there are huge, huge problems out there,” she said.

However, she said Department moves to create thousands of new posts in recent years have inadvertently “intensified” the problem, despite attempts to increase the supply of teachers.

“What we did worked – it just didn’t work enough,” she said.

In the last five years in the primary sector alone, she said, the Department has added 5,000 new teaching posts into the system.

This included 1,400 extra teachers for Ukrainian children, thousands of extra posts to reduce pupil-teacher ratios at primary level and additional teaching posts in the special education sector.

“Those 5,000 extra posts have absolutely intensified the problem, but a huge amount has been done and huge amount continues to be done,” she sad,

“We have 20 per cent extra teachers coming out than we did five years ago, the highest number of teachers ever registered with the Teaching Council. ”

Ms McNally said the department is researching why so many registered are not in the classroom with a view to “tapping on their shoulders”.

In the meantime, she said, hundreds of additional places have been provided in teacher education programmes, while a bursary is being launched next year to ease the financial burden of graduates completing the two-year postgraduate qualification to teach.

In addition, she said the restoration of about 1,000 middle management posts was aimed at making the role more attractive.

“Each of these interventions have delivered to a certain extent – but it would be a lot worse if we hadn’t taken them,” she said.