"Minister, distinguished guests, colleagues, it is a great honour to address you as President of the National Association of Principals and Deputies at this our ninth conference.

When the Executive began to plan for our annual gathering we little knew how appropriate our theme would be, or how apt our quotations! 

Our theme is “Reflections on Leadership”; our text is Henry the Fifth! “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more”. 

Last year’s very entertaining main speaker from New Zealand, Mark Treadwell, used the metaphor of the three legged stool to illustrate his philosophy of life. You remember his three legs were economy, education and faith. In these challenging times the economy is foremost in our minds, but we must not lose faith in our ability to weather the storm or in the influence education may have on a successful outcome.  Leadership is the key.

In 1967 the late Donagh O’Malley and the Government of the day were brave. They had a vision for a better educated Ireland, where high value jobs would be the norm. Free second level education for all was introduced. That one act utterly transformed Ireland. A very privileged minority completed their Leaving Certificate in 1967, about 87% of the age cohort did so in 2007. As I look around the room I see mostly my own age group. We are the first to benefit from free second-level education.
 
Throughout the ‘70s the IDA was doing pioneering work attracting foreign investment into Ireland. The Regional Colleges were also playing a vital part in this development by training young people in skills needed for these new industries.

In 1986, at the height or rather depth of economic depression the National Economic and Social Council developed a strategic plan called the  “Programme for National Recovery”. With its agreed objectives and increased emphasis on inclusion and business stability, it attracted foreign investment - so beginning the era of unparalleled growth known as the “Celtic Tiger”. We are assured that one of the most important features of this success was our highly educated work force.

Ireland now has 14 Institutes of Technology (formerly Regional Colleges), 7 Universities, 5 Colleges of Education and numerous private colleges offering third level education.

In a recent article in the Irish Independent, John Walshe quotes figures of 55% of school leavers participating in third level education in 2004. More startling still are the figures for those children from families headed by skilled manual workers, whose participation almost doubled from 32% in 1998 to 60% in 2004. It’s even higher now!

The abolition of University fees has had an obvious impact on participation. The punitive increases in the registration fee announced on Tuesday will have a negative effect. Surely, as a society we should have as a goal, publicly funded education from pre-school to graduation. In the eighties, the Leaving Certificate was the passport to opportunity, now a degree is the norm. Where is the vision, Minister?

We expected the economic downturn to have an impact on funding for education, to slow down development. But Minister, we did not expect to go backwards. The OECD report shows that Ireland’s per capita investment in Education is already among the lowest in Europe at 4.6% of GDP.  How much further behind will we fall when the cuts announced on Tuesday are implemented?

This is the time for vision, Minister. Can you lead as O’Malley did? Are you brave? The Irish have always valued Education. Everyone in this room can find a story of sacrifice to educate one or two children in the history of their own family; and not that long ago too, your own parents’ generation. What if second level fees had been re-introduced? Where would you all be now? What type of economy would we have had over the last two decades?

We must do what is prudent, plan for the future, invest in education.

We are constantly told by economists that Ireland has a high cost base and, as a result, manufacturing industry moves to cheaper countries in the Far East. But we are equally told that high tech jobs are the way forward. We cannot expect to prepare our students for this technological age without appropriate investment in IT in schools. IT communication is the norm in business, yet many of our teaching colleagues must still rely on chalk and talk to teach and the pen to communicate! 

The Department has disrupted ICT support and sent the IT Advisors back to their schools and we are given to understand that the proposed €252 million NDP funds for IT will not now be rolled out this year.  Or for that matter, next year! This is hardly the way forward!

NAPD was founded to represent the united voice of second level school leaders. In the last few years, three issues have come to dominate our agenda:

• Reform of the Leaving Certificate exam timetable;
• Provision for students with special needs;
• The workload of the Principal and Deputy.

Reform of the Leaving Certificate timetable
The State Examinations Commission consulted with NAPD on devising the changes which were piloted during the 2008 Examination. Reports from students were very favourable and it seems likely that this arrangement will continue next year. This year, only 60 students did not have the benefit of one half day in the first three days of the exams. This is compared with a figure of 12,000 in 2007.

There is still much to be done. Here are a few questions for consideration:

• Should any of the written papers be longer than University exams, i.e. two and a half hours?
• Should the extra time originally designed for students with disabilities and now given to all candidates be abolished? 
• Why do some subjects require two papers and others can be evaluated by one paper?
• Should these two paper subjects be two separate subjects’ e.g. English language and English literature, as they are in Britain? Maths could be divided too. Perhaps geometry and trigonometry could form one subject required for courses such as engineering. Arithmetic would suffice for everyone else, especially those intending to pursue careers in business or banking!
• The oft criticised, but ultimately fair points system for entry to third level could be adjusted in the students’ interest if the Universities and the CAO would evaluate five subjects rather than six. This would allow schools to increase the teaching time allocated per subject, ease the pressure on students, and make room for project work.

NAPD has also made what we believe is a workable proposal concerning the running of the oral and practical exams immediately prior to, and including part of the Easter holidays. Some progress was made on this issue between the State Examinations Commission, the Department and the Unions, but the initiative was stalled through lack of funds. This should be revisited as soon as possible. Teaching time would be protected by its implementation.

The annual media circus
I would just like to focus for a moment on the annual circus that is the media involvement in our exam system, especially in the results. Is there another country where they receive the publicity they do here?
 
On the one hand the papers are full of stories of wonderful triumphs, from those with eight or more A’s to those who had returned to school as adults or some other feel-good, adversity busting scéal!  On the other hand…within a day or two we will have commentary on the grades, the high numbers receiving A’s and how this is proof of the “dumbing down” of the exams. There will be much hand wringing of hands about how girls outperform boys and so on.

You can’t have it both ways, friends in the press. Either these are great students or the exams are easy. The Leaving Cert is not easy. In an analysis of the effects of grinds on Leaving Cert results, Dr Emer Smyth concludes that they make little difference as the majority who take them are hard working, well motivated students who just lack confidence in their ability. In fact 45% of Leaving Cert students take some form of grind! And they are mostly girls!

I’m sure this comes as no surprise to any of you here. Boys are much more pragmatic about the exams. As all parents do, I worried about my son’s apparent lack of interest in working for his Leaving Cert. I might even have nagged a little! His response on receiving his quite respectable (and to us, pleasantly surprising) result was to say: “I have 100 points more than I need, I told you I was working too hard!”.  Girls don’t look at it that way at all.

Special Educational Needs
During the time of plenty, serious investment has taken place in the area of Special Needs Education. The provision of learning support teachers and Special Needs Assistants (SNA) for those with learning difficulties is crucial not only for the inclusion of all children in education but also in their meaningful participation. The provision of reasonable accommodations for examination students has also greatly improved the prospects and success of those with special needs. But I wonder if we were starting again would we have the current model?

The NAPD Special Needs sub-committee focussed on following up last years’ committee’s research into how SNAs work at second level. Originally expected to work only in primary schools, the SNA is a very recent, and welcome, addition to second level. However, the SNA contract was designed for primary schools and does not meet the needs of growing teenagers or the structure of second level schools. A broader definition of the role of SNAs is proposed in that committee’s well researched submission to the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) which is published in the Conference Handbook.

It is well over a year since NAPD was told that NCSE had made a proposal to the Department on the implementation of Section 9 of the Education for Special Education Needs Act 2004 (EPSEN). This set out how and when Individual Education Plans (IEPs) would be commenced and resourced. I regret that more progress hasn’t been made on the implementation of the Act. I welcome the deferral of the EPSEN provisions which would have required major in-service and significant resources. Má’s fiú é a dhéanamh, is fiú é a dhéanamh go maith.

The children with special needs are still in the system. The allocation of funding for improved psychological services is welcome but it is only a start. A Special Needs Co-ordinator with a reduced teaching load is also a must. The most vulnerable need to be cosseted. They deserve our support and the provision of resources as soon as circumstances permit.

Principals and Deputies must not be put under pressure, as they have in the past, to implement Individual Education Plans for students before in-service has taken place at whole-school level, necessary resources are in place and timely access is available to psychologists, speech therapists, occupational therapists as required .

Cost analysis shows that the salary of three SNAs would pay for one psychologist. There are 18,000 SNAs in the system, 10,000 whole-time equivalents with over 2000 operating at second level!  And I am pleased to note the additional funding in the budget to retain this support. SNAs are of huge importance to the students they assist. They are the enablers without whom a significant number of children could not achieve their potential.

But I must, Minister, draw your attention to a most irritating tendency to infer that the provision of SNAs is helping to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio. They are not teachers. Under the terms of the present contract they are not even teaching assistants, although some of the work they do might qualify for such a description. The pupil-teacher ratio went from 16 to 1 in 1998 to 18 to 1 in 1999, and next year it will be 19 to 1. Approximately 1000 teachers less in our system next year! How will that help students with special needs? And, of course the “ordinary student” is totally overlooked!

Counselling
Counselling services, as opposed to guidance counselling, for schools is almost non-existent. Many of the children experiencing difficulty in school are not those with special learning needs alone but rather those experiencing emotional and behavioural difficulties. The National Behaviour Support Service (NBSS) pilot programme has acknowledged this need in the interim report made to the NAPD Executive by our former colleague Mary Keane. 

As I said, NAPD welcomes the increased allocation for educational psychologists announced in the budget but I urge you Minister, to liaise with the Child and Family Services of the HSE to increase their involvement with schools in providing counselling for our troubled teens.

Reasonable Accommodations
The growth and variety of provision of Reasonable Accommodations for students who are unable to participate in the standard exam is a welcome development too, but I doubt anyone expected it to grow to such a level. Thanks to NAPD lobbying of the education partners and the management bodies Principals do at least now have the assistance of an Examination Aide for the exam period.

The work involved in applying for Reasonable Accommodations is extensive but the most difficult aspect is finding suitable supervisors for the single centres. The use of technology could help here. The provision of exam papers to individual candidates on audio tapes or CD would enable all those who require readers to be supervised by one person and in a single centre, for example.

NAPD made a submission to the working group on Reasonable Accommodations and their report is expected shortly. There are genuine fears about the integrity of the Junior and Leaving Certificate exams if the current increase in numbers seeking reasonable accommodations persists.

Workload of the Principal and Deputy
As the most legislated for individuals, not only in education but also in the workforce generally, the statutory responsibilities of the Principal and Deputy are extensive. Since its inception, NAPD has constantly highlighted the additional work being assigned to Principals and Deputies and have tried to ensure adequate supports are in place, where possible, to enable the principal carry out his or her responsibilities.

The report on the OECD Activity, "Improving School Leadership", concluded that principals in many countries were "overburdened, underpaid and opting for early retirement". The Leadership Development for Schools (LDS) team, with Prof Aine Hyland, have recently published the "Country Background Report for Ireland", commissioned by the Government following the OECD Report 2007,  which looks at all aspects of school leadership here. In chapter 3, a detailed description of the legislative responsibilities of the Boards of Management and the Principal are outlined with the conclusion that legislative change has impacted hugely on the Principal because the issue of resources has not been addressed.

Boards of Management, for example, have extensive legal responsibilities in the Voluntary and Community and Comprehensive sectors, yet they are composed of untrained volunteers who give their time freely for the benefit of local schools and communities. Inevitably the Principal takes on additional work for which he or she has no legal responsibility.

NAPD has lobbied the management bodies to establish in-service Boards and to provide expertise as needed.

Nobody’s to blame for the current model but it is unsatisfactory and unsustainable. The OECD Leadership Profile identifies four key areas:

• Personal Leadership, 
• Organisational Leadership, 
• Transformational Leadership,
• Instructional Leadership.

If we are honest we will admit that most of our time is spent on Organisational Leadership. In other words, we manage the administration, frequently duplicating it for our different masters. We manage the finance, spending much of our time fundraising to meet the difference between what is allocated and what is needed to run the school, and we manage the plant.

Time is short to lead learning, to develop teams, to develop and promote curricular and cultural change. Our time is spent managing schools, not leading them.

I was struck this year by the number of re-advertisements for Principal’s and Deputy Principal’s posts. Some posts were advertised three times. I was also struck by the number of newly appointed Principals we met at LDS training in August who had not been Deputy Principals. I hope they are here today and not in shock! Remember NAPD will support you and answer those questions and offer advice.

Thankfully we do have LDS. Our seconded colleagues are working most effectively with new Principals and Deputy Principals. The establishment of this support service was one of NAPD’s first projects and we welcome the launch of the Tóraíocht programme for aspiring leaders. At the ESHA Conference in Copenhagen we heard from Toby Salt, Director of the National College for School Leadership that only 10% of those who complete a similar programme in Britain actually go on to become Principals or Deputies. I hope that is not the case here.
 
However, if people learn they are not suited to the post then that is better than taking it on and being unhappy and unsuccessful.

It may also have the benefit of increasing awareness among our teachers of the complexity and challenges of these posts. It is a great privilege to lead a school. It is exciting and exhilarating, but it is not for everyone!

Personal Leadership and Transformational Leadership are crucial both to the personal development of the Principal and Deputy and to the school they lead. Building good relationships; developing policies and goals; promoting teamwork; creating a collaborative environment to achieve these goals are very important activities for the management team. And great leaders recognise that they don’t have all the skills themselves.

They find people who have a competence. They encourage them, coach them and reward them both financially and with responsibility. Our In School Management system does not encourage such distributive leadership. Again I ask would we have the current model if we were to design it today?

Region five undertook to explore alternative models of middle management drawing on the advice of colleagues and the experiences of other systems gained through members’ visits to other countries. The working document has been discussed and modified at Executive and will shortly be forwarded to each region for discussion.

It is radical and challenging. But I hope it will begin a discussion about leadership in schools; both how to develop and encourage new leaders as well as enable current Principals and Deputies get on with the job of instructional and curricular leadership. 

I have already referred to areas, Minister, where you might show leadership. Despite the cut in the Teacher Education Budget which will necessitate a reduced service in support programmes, I urge you to retain funding to programmes such as the Leadership Development in Schools Programme, Second Level Support Services (SLSS), and especially School Development PIanning Initiative (SDPI) - all of which are crucial to the ongoing improvement in the teaching and learning in our schools.

I recognise that there may be need to re-prioritise and this will require tact and skill to negotiate with the Unions.

In-service training
Far too many teaching hours are lost to our students through the current system of in-service training of teachers. This Association strongly supports the provision of opportunities for up-skilling, but as leaders of learning we have to consider the needs of our students. With the best will in the world, it is well nigh impossible to get qualified cover for most subjects when teachers are at in-service training. Indeed there is a chronic shortage of qualified teachers of some subjects, such as Irish and Maths, for full time jobs.

Minister, I urge you to proceed with amending legislation to Section 30 of the Teaching Council Act to regularise matters across the sectors.

On-line training, Saturday courses and, dare I say it, training during times when the schools are closed, should be investigated. Up-skilling is a basic requirement for all professions. Who among us would visit a GP who hadn’t kept abreast of new developments in medicine? Our teachers are professionals and it should not be impossible to devise a scheme whereby in-service is a routine part of one's professional career but does not impinge on teaching time. Perhaps the re-registration process of the Teaching Council could have a role to play here.

Governance of our schools
Treadwell’s "three legged stool" from last year’s Conference provides a good metaphor for our management systems. When this organisation began, if we are honest, there was a little hesitancy on all our parts to be open with one another - the “They might gain an advantage over us” mentality. What we have discovered in the last 10 years is that, though we are managed differently, we all have the same issues.

Undoubtedly, the sturdiest leg of the stool is the Community and Comprehensive sector and how we envy them their budgets and their relative freedom to manage them. The Voluntary Secondary School sector is seriously under-funded for historical reasons. Traditionally managed by religious orders that subsidised schools from their own resources, they have fallen seriously behind the other sectors. That is now being addressed.

My own sector, VEC, is frequently looked on by the other sectors with envious eyes. We have loads of money and a CEO to do all our work!  In fact, NAPD research has shown that VEC schools have the most unpredictable budgets at second level. There is no such thing as capitation. Each VEC operates independently of any other, allocating different amounts for the running of their schools from the block grant, and supporting Principals differently too.

The situation vis-a-vis the infamous 5% administration grant to schools for Supervision and Substitution is a case in point. It now appears that 2.5% will be paid to the in-school administration while the VEC retains the other 2.5%.

It is to their shame that our employers will not pay what is owed for work done previously. It is, of course, to our Union’s everlasting shame that they allowed this to happen in the first place! Having dithered for so long in looking after the needs of their members, I now call on TUI to negotiate with both the CEO Association and the IVEA to have the arrears paid in full.

VEC Principals must also funnel all activity through the VEC office as well as communicating directly with DES. My predecessor, Patricia McDonagh, while welcoming the establishment of Trust Bodies such as Le Chéile and CEIST, expressed the hope that duplication of work would not creep into the other two sectors. However, colleagues in the Voluntary and Community & Comprehensive sectors have recently reported that the new Trust Bodies are indeed seeking information and clarifications from Boards of Management on audits and other returns made routinely to the DES. Needless to state, these queries land on the Principal’s desk.

This is a very disappointing development and not in keeping with the expectations of support for the Principal raised by the inception of the Trust Bodies. NAPD acknowledge the rights of trustees to briefings and reports and will work with the Trust Bodies and the JMB to explore ways this may be done in a manner which avoids duplication and increased workload.  

There is a serious issue here. Irrespective of which management systems we work under, we are all doing the same job. Or rather, we all have the same responsibilities under the Education Act, 1998. Yet our working conditions vary significantly. There is a significant leadership role here for our Unions to support us.

I see now that Educate Together has begun a campaign to become a Patron Body involved in second level Education. Diversity is welcome but I’m not sure we need another, different management system in this very small country.

Many of the fundamental tenets of Educate Together are enshrined in the Community and Comprehensive model, the VEC model, and the JMB would insist that Voluntary Secondary schools are more than adequately meeting the needs of the communities they serve. Their claim to meet the needs of multi/non-denominational students is possibly true at primary level where almost all schools are run under religious patronage, but at second level VEC schools are multi-denominational and cater for all religions and none. There are, in fact, few schools that will refuse to accommodate religious difference. 

Performance Management and Self Evaluating Schools
Colleagues, one of our presenters at Conference is Mr Chris Harrison, President of ESHA, the European Schools Heads Association. He will  address “Performance Management” and the topic of the self evaluating school. This is the next phase, as we know from the document “Looking at Our Schools”, following on from Whole School Evaluation. Self Evaluation - are we doing as well as we think for our students? What we can do better, how it will be done and so forth.

Well, schools are not the only players in the Education system who need to self evaluate - beginning with our management systems and moving through the various agencies and up in to the Department itself. We must decide what we are going to retain, what we will modify, and what we will let go. And always our focus must be the children in our schools.

We must cherish that wonderful resource that is our young people. Let not the next generation suffer because we have spent foolishly in the past. We mustn’t react to the present crisis like people who know the price of everything but the value of nothing.

In the context of the hard choices being made nationally, the Minister and his officials are to be congratulated on a 3.2% increase in expenditure. Yet, the increase in quota to 19:1 is a back to the future measure, back to 1999 in fact. 

The abolition of grants to enhance and support the Junior Certificate Schools Programme, Leaving Certificate Applied, Leaving Certificate Vocational and Transition Year will affect the programmes on offer in schools. The students who avail of these courses are the most vulnerable in the system. School leaders make hard choices daily and this Budget doesn’t make our job any easier.

Minister, you asked us to work with you collectively in meeting the challenges. We will, because that is what school leaders do daily, we will go with you once more unto the breach. Don’t let us down, Minister. Be a visionary, follow Donogh O’Malley’s lead, fight for the children!  Education has an intrinsic value and a national worth. It will always repay the resources we allocate to it.

Buiochas
There are many people to whom I owe thanks:

• The Executive committee with whom it was an honour and privilege to work, and especially Patricia and Ciaran who have been such a wonderful support to me throughout the year.
• My colleagues on the various Regional committees who invited me to their functions, welcomed me and looked after me so well.
• To Catherine Shiels, NAPD Administrator, whose kindness, courtesy and efficiency is exemplary, many thanks. 
• Mary McGlynn, whose leadership has brought us to the position now enjoyed by the Association.
• Clive Byrne, who carries on the good fight - all of you have been immensely supportive of me this last year and I thank them most sincerely.
• Many thanks too to our former president Derek West for his gentle reminders about the monthly article for the Executive Report and his help with my speeches. 
• To the leaders in Education, many of whom are with us today, who so courteously received me in my role representing NAPD and who, most importantly, listened and took on board our viewpoints, many thanks.
• To my colleagues in Co. Laois VEC, our CEO Mrs Anne O’Keeffe, my Board of Management and especially to my colleagues in St Fergal’s. I owe a great debt of gratitude for their support and their patience with my frequent absences, both physically and mentally, from the day to day job throughout the year. I want to pay a special tribute to my colleague and Deputy Principal Sean Conroy. He arrived as deputy in September ’07 and I became President in October so it was definitely in at the deep end. Thank you Sean for all your help and support. 
• I would like to thank my children, Caoimhe, Ciaran and Cliodhna for their encouragement, not just last year but during all my years on the Executive. They even managed to appear interested in my stories from time to time.
• Heartfelt thanks to mo fear cheile Liam. Without his encouragement I would not be here at all. He encouraged me to accept the nomination to represent the Vocational Deputy Principals when Maire Ni Bhroite and Rory O’Sullivan proposed me all those years ago. I had never been on a committee and wasn’t sure if I could contribute. Liam was sure I could and that I would enjoy it too. Well, it’s for others to decide if I contributed but I have enjoyed it so mile buiochas Liam for all your support and encouragement.

I have focussed my address to you, colleagues, on different aspects of leadership, what we expect from our leaders and from ourselves. I have made a few suggestions on how some issues might be addressed. NAPD has, over the years, shown itself to be thoughtful, logical and reasoned in its proposals. We have enjoyed the confidence of our Ministers, the Department and all the agencies. I think we have gained the respect of the other interested partners, including the Unions. This can only be good, both for the system itself and the students we serve. Long may it continue!

Go raibh míle maith agaibh.