Lack of funding means many primary school principals are doing two full-time jobs. Is it any wonder interest in headships is dropping?

In 2005, the Irish primary principal has to be all things to all people. At once an administrator, a personnel manager, a caretaker, a social worker - and more often than not a teacher - many who do the job say that a lack of funding means it is increasingly seen as a "poisoned chalice" which nobody wants to take on.

By way of illustration, Sean Cottrell, head of the Irish Primary Principals' Network (IPPN), which holds its annual conference later this week, says he is aware of several schools around the State that currently have no principal because nobody wants the job.

More than 70 per cent of those who do take on the role are forced to teach full-time as well, he points out, with scant administrative resources to help them in this dual role. This has real implications for the future career progression of the State's young teachers, he says, as many see the job as just not worth the hassle.

It is 8.30 a.m. and the school rush has already begun at All Saints National School in Blackrock, Co Dublin. For the principal of the Church of Ireland school, Hilary McBain, it is simply another day.

Her passion for the job is evident through the enthusiasm she displays even at this relatively early hour of the morning. In a conspiratorial whisper, she confides that she has already received three calls on the school's portable phone, and expects quite a few more during the day.

As a small school with just 57 pupils, All Saints can only afford to pay for a receptionist for four days a week, she says. Today is not one of those days. As a result, she will also fill the role of school secretary. McBain carries the phone with her constantly.

Due to its location on affluent Carysfort Avenue, All Saints is a school that caters to children from predominantly well-off backgrounds. Its three classrooms and entrance hall are both pristine and welcoming. There is little sign of the dilapidated classrooms that have become an all-too-common sight in the media.

But the All Saints building has not always been this way. Until recently, the school was in need of major refurbishment, and was so short of facilities that two of its three teachers had to share a classroom, with only partitions to divide them. You could hear everything, McBain says.

After waiting several years, the school eventually received a one-off grant of €275,000, which had to be spent within 12 months, under the Department of Education's devolved small and rural schools initiative.

The board of management and parents at the school undertook to raise the remaining €45,000 the school needed to complete the renovations, most of which is still owed.

This culminated with the opening of the new building by the Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin (who is a TD for the constituency), last November.

All Saints now has its three classrooms, including an attic conversion, and resource-teaching facilities for those children who need them.

The parents at the school organise wine evenings, family portraits and 1970s-themed dinner dances to help make up the shortfall in fundraising.

One father even got up at 3 a.m. recently to respond to the school alarm - because of a lack of funding, McBain says, the school cannot afford to connect the alarm to a monitoring company, and asked him to act as keyholder instead.

This is a school that has everything going for it - a committed, active parents' committee, an energetic principal, and few of the challenges which come with catering to severely disadvantaged children.

But clearly it is has its problems all the same. Arguably, chief among these are the demands - and expectations - placed on Mc Bain's time.

Teaching a mixed class of fourth, fifth and sixth class, McBain is forced to alternate her lessons between them. At All Saints, fourth class sits on the left, fifth on the right, and sixth class at the back.

While she feels this mixed class structure allows the children to learn from an early age how to engage in self-directed learning - and to stretch themselves by gaining an insight into the standards that older children have to attain - despite her best efforts, McBain is hard-pressed at times to give her undivided attention. For example, she has to keep the door open to make sure any child or visitor to the school is being dealt with. If a call comes through on the phone, she has to interrupt her class to deal with it.

Later, sitting in her office, she explains that there are other, more immediate challenges.

Many of the school's extracurricular activities could not happen without the goodwill of parents, she says. For example, if the weather is bad, the phonecalls to parents start, looking for lifts to swimming lessons.

Much of her time after school is taken up formulating school policies on areas such as health and safety, bullying and learning support. She also has to find space to motivate her staff, deal with queries from parents - and ask the Department to provide the necessary supports for her pupils who are in need of resource teaching.

She says her "biggest gripe" on a personal level is that under the current system of allowances, which is done on a per-pupil basis, many deputy principals of larger schools receive more money than she does as a full principal.

"I'm not in this job for the money . . . But I feel undervalued," she explains. "There is also a lack of clarity of my role . . . For me personally, it is essential to be a teacher. What I'm looking for in my life is to find practical measures to allow me to do the job."

According to Cottrell, McBain's predicament is typical of many schools. "The Department of Education and Science treats all schools as if they are exactly the same," he says. "There is this duopoly, this notion of being in two roles at the same time where you are being simultaneously pulled in different directions." Many principals suffer from stress, worry and insomnia as a result of the pressures they face, he says.

As a result, Cottrell believes the Department should investigate the possibility of allowing such schools to enter into "clusters" of three to five schools who would collaborate on a voluntary basis.

Such schools would retain their boards of management and staff, but would pool their resources in other areas such as policy development, the purchase of equipment and the employment of certain ancillary staff.

Another option for schools would be to create a federation between two schools "as a last resort" for those which cannot find a principal to take on the job. This would involve the amalgamation of boards of management, staff, and budgets - but the retention of separate campuses. However, Cottrell says the Department has so far shown little interest in such a move.

Meanwhile, he says that for many parents, the concept of a free education system remains "a fallacy - the fact is that almost nothing happens in a school that is fully financed. Ask anyone what is the function of a parents' committee, and they will say fund-raising. But this should not be the case," he says.

"The practice, in fact, would suggest there is some recognition by the Department that the shortfall in funding will be made up by parents."