IPPN

The public has been appalled on discovering the reckless and outrageous behaviour of those who paraded themselves as role models and icons of success in their respective fields. As they have still not been held accountable, it's easy to see how you as a Principal could become frustrated, demoralised or even cynical. But you haven't and that is the difference between real and bogus leaders. If we have learned anything in the last two years, it is that a leader who is without integrity is absolutely nothing.

Three years ago, there was an air of confidence and ambition which gave educators a sense of real hope. Hope that real investment in education was finally happening and that our education system would reach the standards and potential that we knew were possible. It is simply unbelievable that we are here in 2010 at a conference for school leaders in shock, anger and disbelief trying to come to grips with a return to the resources and salaries of a bygone era. Regrettably, the rising tide did not lift all boats. The number of children that continue to be taught in prefabs, the dependence on parents to pay for basic operating costs of schools, the embarrassing state of ICT in schools and just now the doubling in the cost of water, suggests that the Celtic Tiger never went to school. Add to that the ruthless culling of Special Needs Assistants and English Language Teachers and school secretaries and caretakers working for a minimum wage...begs the question, how on earth could this have happened? But this didn't just happen. People were in charge. Why are they not accountable now? My fear is that there is no willingness to hold those leaders to account.

In stark contrast, you have led by example, managing vast amounts of change in education with which you are all familiar. The quality of leadership evident in primary schools has been truly remarkable. If it were Primary Principals who were leading our banks, churches and state agencies, somehow I doubt we would be in the mess that we are in now. What if it were the other way around?... Imagine the cross between Celebrity Bainisteoir and Fantasy Football. Think of a primary school with Bertie Ahern as Principal, Desmond Connell as the School Patron, Roddy Molloy chairing the Board and Seán Fitzpatrick as Treasurer? Then you could have Liam Carroll building the school extension – money would be no problem as Seán Fitzpatrick could get a 120% loan from Michael Fingleton – and it wouldn't even show up in the books! Minister, would you like your grandchildren to be enrolled in that school?

Staff morale has taken a hammering due to savage cuts in school budgets followed by the severe blow to teachers' and principals' personal finances. Low teacher morale is detrimental to children. Perhaps the greatest challenge for school leaders in 2010 will be to provide positive leadership to your teachers and staff and to inspire them to be the best that they can be for every single child in your school. Imagine for a moment that you are not the Principal in your school. Consider the difference it would make to you as a teacher having a Principal who models hope rather than despair, positivity rather than cynicism. As school leaders, our attitude to this education crisis will have a deep and long-lasting impact on teachers and children in our schools.

Sometimes we underestimate the degree of influence we have over our teaching colleagues. A single, credible, positive voice can outweigh a dozen whingers. To make that difference, it is critical that you focus all of your time and energy on things that you can influence or control. And it is even more vital that you smother the forces of negativity by depriving them of your attention.

Understandably, there are times when you will grow tired of the relentless conveyor belt of problems that teachers, parents and children bring to you on a daily basis. However, in the words of former U.S General Colin Powell 'the day people stop bringing you their problems is the day you are no longer their leader'.

By any analysis, the role of Primary Principal is a complex and highly challenging role. Yet, there are few roles with such a high concentration of committed, caring and passionate professionals. You show entrepreneurship, innovation and ingenuity in the way you lead, manage and achieve so much progress in schools that are so under-funded and under-resourced. Your leadership has inspired others. You have sacrificed your private and family time. All because you believe that the children in your school have the right to the best possible learning you can give them and too often if you don't go the extra mile, no-one else will.

Acknowledging the many newly-appointed Principals here today, I am eager to make sure that your enthusiasm is encouraged. You will be heartened to know that in a recent international study of Principals in twenty countries, it emerged that when asked how they felt about their job, in spite of all the challenges, two out of three stated that they either liked or loved their job.

Principals' Workload

At the first Principals' conference in Cork in 1994, concern was expressed about the excessive workload being handled by school leaders. In the intervening 16 years, swathes of legislation, reams of policy guidelines and hundreds of Department circulars have been dispatched to schools. The reality is many of you don't get time to study all of these documents. Your time is consumed scavenging for scarce professional supports for children with special needs, fundraising to cover operational costs, coping with a relentless growth in bureaucracy and attending a ridiculous schedule of meetings. That's if you are lucky enough to avoid a Section 29 or a post of responsibility appeal. You are Superman or Wonderwoman and you are expected to be and do all things for all people.

Additional responsibilities are continuously added to the leadership role of Principal without any realistic means to delegate tasks to In-school Management or Board of Management. Because of this, other important matters may be neglected. A major concern now arises from the recent union work-to-rule directive. This directive unfairly places Principals in an invidious position where we are torn between our leadership responsibility to deliver a service that parents and children are entitled to and a directive that will inevitably reduce the quality of that service. I thought Principals were members of that same union?

Each year when IPPN presents at the LDS Misneach programme for newly-appointed Principals, we speak about defining your role as Principal in the context of your school. We examine the five defined groups of people with whom you interact, and within each group, we focus on those things the Principal must do, those things the Principal should delegate and the many things that should be discarded. Most of us are long enough in this game to know that constant change is the reality for Principals. Prioritizing and being able to say no are two special skills that Principals have to acquire.

I firmly believe that unless you have experienced the role of Teaching Principal, you simply cannot appreciate how challenging it is to be the leader of a school community and at the same time, a fulltime class teacher. This 2in1 role has become a health and safety issue. If a risk assessment were to be carried out on the role of a Teaching Principal, I am certain that among others, it would identify one key risk -the threat to the health and welfare of the Teaching Principal. There is ample evidence to show that the guilt, anxiety and stress, which is par for the course for every Teaching Principal, is damaging to their mental and physical health. This issue will become a key focus of research for IPPN.

In a season of withdrawing circulars we remind you again Minister of our call in Killarney last year that Teaching Principals should have the option of taking on the role of Learning Support/Resource Teacher. Such a decision would respect the fact that the Principal is best positioned to decide on the allocation of all teaching duties in the school. The Principal's prerogative to delegate teaching duties is fundamental to the role and should not be curtailed.

Curriculum

I would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the Minister's recent decision which will make it obligatory for all schools to teach the Stay Safe programme. This is a vital element in safeguarding children from abuse.

It brings into sharp focus whether we are really meeting children's right to an appropriate education in 2010? Just think of the reality of children's lives today. They have to contend with peer pressure in relation to alcohol and drugs as well as bullying, racism and homophobia. The challenges that previously were experienced in second-level are becoming very real in primary schools. Many children, girls in particular, are anxious and unhappy about their weight. Many are becoming increasingly obese while others are going on diets. In a recent survey of Principals, depression and other mental health issues were identified as an area of growing concern. The deliberate sexualisation of children in music, television, films and magazines will have devastating consequences. We have become aware in the past year of at least three primary schools where children have ended their own life. Yet, the curriculum allocates just one hour per week to PE and just half an hour for social, personal and health education.

Of course schools are not the panacea to solve all the social ills of our time but now, more than ever before, they have a vital role to play in the physical, social, emotional and psychological development of the child. What children learn today must be relevant to their future. We urgently need to examine how our primary education system can best equip children with a far deeper and broader range of inter, and intra-personal skills that will be so vital for the lives they will live.

Given that the majority of jobs in which today's primary school children will work when they leave school have not yet been invented, it is obvious that technology has to be harnessed for teaching and learning. Children in 2010 are what I would call digital natives, their only experience is of a world with digital and multi-media technology. Not all technology is good, but clearly education can be one of the greatest beneficiaries when it is harnessed properly. For over 20 years, through the fundraising efforts of Principals, teachers and parents, many schools have been using technology to enhance and diversify what and how children learn. Sadly, some schools don't have this local fundraising capacity and depend on the NCTE for provision. These schools struggle to make sense of incoherent and disjointed policy not to mention the disastrous attempts to implement it over the last 10 years. In the absence of a successful national strategy, we are a long way from having even a basic sustainable ICT structure in place in all schools. Given that internationally, Ireland's name is synonymous with the IT industry, it is simply inexcusable that we are so far behind.

By the way Minister, how did €252 million for ICT in schools suddenly shrink to €22 million? I am aware that we are currently experiencing deflation, but this is ridiculous! And, if you think a projector and an empty laptop in each classroom gets the Department off the hook, I'm afraid we have had one cake sale too many to forget who has really paid for technology in schools. I was both annoyed and amused when I heard recently that inspectors are now asking schools for their policy on e-learning! Will someone fill them in on the real story? What we need now is a leader. A leader who will deliver a simple 'we're going to put a man on the moon' type speech. We don't need any more committees or reviews. We need one simple goal. It might be something like 'By the end of December 2010 every primary classroom will have an interactive whiteboard with internet access, technical support and approved software to support the teaching of one core subject'. Minister, in 2010, that's not a privilege, it's a right.

Conclusion

I once heard that it's only dead fish that go with the flow. On a similar basis, you'll be glad to hear that in spite of the biting recession IPPN is having its best year yet. Membership is solid as a rock. We have our largest ever number attending this Principals' conference, as well as increased numbers at our Deputy Principals' Conference. The number of Principals and Deputies availing of on-line professional development and attending County Network meetings has also increased. Perhaps it's a sign of the growing pressure on Principals and their need to belong in a safe place where they can support one another. You heard from Pat yesterday that the Support Office staff will shortly move into a new building that we can finally call home. Undertaking a building project last year has surprised many. IPPN has often gone against the flow, but we're very much alive and we're hard-core optimists. In the words of Michael J Fox, 'unity is strength, knowledge is power but attitude is everything'.

Wasn't it fantastic to see our on-line principals' network in action recently? They stood up to two corporate giants and faced them down. Hopefully this marks the end of primary schools being the target of corporate vultures swirling in the skies waiting for the right moment to launch the latest marketing campaign dressed up as a school competition.

On a similar basis, last year it was wonderful to see the groundswell of opinion from Principals who demanded that Boards of Management be allowed to exercise their right to interview and appoint temporary teachers for fixed term contracts on the basis of merit. There's no short-cut or substitute for doing the right thing.

Yes, Principals operate within a highly politicised education environment where vested interests abound. Policy and direction are often decided with little regard for Principals. But, when a problem crops up, inevitably it's the responsibility of the Board of Management, which in turn really means the Principal. This form of centralised control and devolved responsibility is very clever and it works brilliantly for everyone except the Principal.

Principals are doers. You make things happen. You detest bureaucracy. You recognise potential. You nurture the weakest and challenge the strongest. You are frustrated by committees. Yet you never despair. You will do whatever it takes for your school to be ready after the latest weather crisis. You give up your holidays to supervise building projects. You regularly work overtime. In other words, you put the interests of children before your own. Be proud of it as you are 'servant leaders' in the real sense of the word.

It has been said that you should never waste a good crisis. Losing resources will inevitably lead to the need to re-examine and reprioritise the leadership and management responsibilities for your school. As the leader of your school, you not only have the right but the obligation to fulfil your role so it best serves the needs of the children. Their right to education must always come first and it is our privilege to serve that right.