IPPN

Published: 09 February 2011

Principals who attended our 2011 annual conference in Citywest, heard the Chief Inspector, Harold Hislop state that the probation of NQTs will be carried out by Principals in the future.  In his opening address, Pat Goff referred to the findings of our annual consultation survey, which we carried out in December.  We asked a specific question regarding the responsibility for probating NQTs. The question asked was:

‘Who should have responsibility for the assessment and probation of Newly Qualified teachers’? 98% of Principals felt that probating a teacher was ultimately the responsibility of the inspectorate and/or Teaching Council. 

Principals responded that they were quite prepared to share their knowledge and experience of an NQT with a visiting inspector, but felt it was not their responsibility to ‘sign-off’ on probation. 

The main issues were:

• This would be an obvious change to Principals’ terms and conditions of employment
• Inspectors are trained to assess teachers, Principals are not
• 70% of Principals are full-time class teachers – when, where and how could they carry-out this work, when the inspectorate admit that they cannot find the time to this within their current workload?
• Principals and teachers are all paying a membership fee to the Teaching Council - if, as the Chief Inspector says, the teaching profession must have its own ‘gate-keepers’, let the Teaching Council recruit and train retired Principals and/or inspectors for this function
• In small schools in particular, where there is a strong dependency on teamwork, this dynamic could be eroded where a Principal has to probate new teachers
• In larger schools, where posts of responsibility are rapidly disappearing and there is a high volume of new temporary teachers, it is inconceivable that a Principal could find time to give the 2 ½-3 days to observe, assess and document for the probation of each NQT.

We have arranged a meeting with the Teaching Council to discuss this issue and this will take place during the mid-term break.  Principals have a lot to deal with at the moment, and the last thing we need is further uncertainty from the Teaching Council. We will also meet with the INTO to inform them of our survey outcomes and request clarity on the strategy which the union has in place to deal with this issue.

If you wish to add further points to this topic, please send your views to Pat Goff – president@ippn.ie.

Is mise le meas