Principals under ‘huge’ pressure to deliver free schoolbooks scheme on time

Minister for Education Norma Foley has pledged secondary school principals will get all the support they need to deliver free schoolbooks for junior cycle students in time for the start of the coming school year.

More than 200,000 first-, second- and third-year students in non-fee-charging schools are due to receive free schoolbooks and learning resources such as calculators for the first time from next September.

However, school principals have warned they are under pressure to deliver the initiative on time due to what they describe as a complicated procurement process and lack of support.

The Joint Managerial Body (JMB), which manages about half of second-level schools, said school leaders were under “huge” pressure to navigate the tendering process, evaluate bids, manage the budget allocation, and prepare for audit and compliance evaluations.

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JMB president John Barry said while it was a fantastic development for families, “Doing this, and all the other small jobs that have to be done, during a final term that is already busy, is putting extra pressures on school principals. They must have their break too, but many still work well into July.”

Speaking at the JMB annual conference in Killarney on Friday, Ms Foley said the measure would eliminate significant costs for families.

She said she was mindful the procurement process was daunting and challenging for larger schools who were tendering for contracts.

However, she said her officials were working closely with school management bodies to help schools navigate the procurement process. There was also an administration support grant which allowed schools to employ individuals to work for10-16 days to carry out administrative work on the scheme.

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“Nothing is ever perfect – so it will require us to keep working on this to get it right… We are committed to a full review of the rollout after this year, and where we need to make additional changes or provide additional resources, we will do that. We want the scheme to work. We know it cannot work without your leadership… We will sincerely walk the journey with you,” Ms Foley said.

The JMB has also called for school to be adequately funded and for the leadership capacity of schools to be boosted with the allocation of additional deputy principal posts.

Mr Barry said pressures on schools were growing in the face of a changed legislative and regulatory environment, as well as the expansion of special needs education and curricular reform at junior and senior cycle level.

While more middle-management posts were welcome, he said these teachers did not have the agency or authority to deal with many issues arising in schools.

“More crucially, the impact of middle leaders on students, parents and colleagues is constrained by their lack of availability. They are not contractually available after 4pm and neither are they contractually available in July and August, not to mention outside term time,” he said.

“While many do make themselves available and do wonderful work – and we want to encourage that level of distributed leadership – there are too many who do not. We ask you to invest in leadership in the form of deputy principals who are available after 4pm, who are available in June and August.”

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