IPPN

29th January 2010 Work-to-rule directive puts Principals in impossible position

Last Updated: Friday, 29 January 2010 11:54

The recent work-to-rule directive places Principals in over 3,500 schools in an impossible situation, states Mr Seán Cottrell, National Director of the Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN) in his keynote address to 1,000 Principals at the annual IPPN conference in Citywest Hotel, Dublin today Friday 29^th January.

Principals have onerous legal and statutory responsibilities and are accountable for their duty of care to children. Some recent work to rule directives could result in principals having to make hard choices between their legal responsibility or care of children and a union 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’, stated Mr Cottrell.

The Director went on to say that additional responsibilities continuously added to the leadership role of the Principal is unsustainable as there is no realistic means to delegate tasks to middle management or Boards of Management. Principals are caught between their legislative responsibilities and their membership of a union which leaves them subject to directives. There is an added complexity for Principals who are also class teachers.

ENDS