Ban on filling assistant principal posts is eased
SCHOOL managers have given a cautious welcome to the long-awaited easing of the ban on filling assistant principal posts in September.
But they warned that schools with less than 500 pupils will be unable to appoint a year head for each year group.
Spokesman Ferdia Kelly said the middle-management posts were vital in schools. He added that Education Minister Mary Coughlan's announcement was welcomed as a recognition that schools could not continue to function indefinitely with ever decreasing numbers of post holders.
The moratorium has meant about 700 assistant principal posts and hundreds of special duties posts have not been filled. New criteria will allow them to fill some of the vacant assistant principal posts.
But Ms Coughlan said there would be no return to the situation whereby half of all teachers had promotion posts. She said the "limited derogation" from the general moratorium had been agreed with Finance Minister Brian Lenihan.
Schools that lost a significant number of posts would be able to fill a limited number of vacancies while the overall number of promotion positions would continue to reduce.
"Second-level schools will be able to make appointments to vacant assistant principal posts where the overall number of posts in a school falls below a certain minimum.
Derogation
"The new arrangements will also cover situations where schools have certain vacancies relating to the co-ordination and delivery of such programmes as the Leaving Cert Applied and the Leaving Cert Vocational Programme," she said.
There will also be a limited derogation in the case of larger primary schools.
However, the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) was scathing of the measure saying that it "barely sticks a plaster over damage already inflicted".
"Most galling of all, it appears to make no allowance for schools which operate in the most disadvantaged communities in the country.
"Schools will face chaos in September in attempting to deal with this unacceptable deficit," general secretary Peter MacMenamin said.
Incoming ASTI general secretary Pat King expressed great disappointment at the "very limited nature" of the change.
"While any alleviation, however slight, is an improvement on the current intolerable situation that exists in schools, today's announcement is totally inadequate," he said.
The Irish Vocational Education Association (IVEA), representing management of VEC schools and colleges, said it was a step in the right direction -- but only that.
"This 'storm' has been raging for some time, and this limited alleviation has to be welcomed. It will have to focus on the worst-affected schools. But it should be only the first step in a process which addresses the emergency that currently prevails in the school administration process," general secretary Michael Moriarty said.
- John Walshe Education Editor
Irish Independent
