Primary school principals burnt out
Unsafe working hours and increasing workloads are leaving primary school principals stressed, burnt out and more sleep deprived than other Kiwis.
An independent survey commissioned by education union NZEI Te Riu Roa has found school principals and senior leaders suffer 1.7 times the rate of burnout, 1.8 times the rate of stress and have trouble sleeping at a rate 2.4 times higher than that of the general population.
Titahi Bay School principal Colin Tarr, who is also NZEI’s primary principal representative, said it was not uncommon for him to wake at 3am with his head noisy with thoughts of work.
The strain was a symptom of a systemic issue, with a lack of staff being brought in to handle an ever-increasing workload, he said.
‘‘I have to say that for myself as I looked at [the figures], I thought that’s my grim reality as a primary school principal.’’
Tarr keeps at it because he cares about the school and its pupils, but said ‘‘you can’t keep flogging willing horses’’.
The survey found principals were putting in about 53 to 58 hours a week. Tarr estimated he worked about 60 hours.
A typical week for him involved starting at 7am and finishing at 5.30pm on weekdays, then doing an hour or two of work at home each night and more on Sunday afternoons to prepare for the following week.
The Primary Principal’s Collective Agreement shows they typically earn about $80,000 per year at the smallest schools up to $150,000 at schools with more than 2400 pupils. Salaries vary depending on the school decile and number of staff.
Tarr said the work of a school principal spans property management, human resources, finances and more.
‘‘High-functioning, experi- enced practitioners have said, ‘enough is enough, we’re out of here’.’’
NZEI President Lynda Stuart said there were ‘‘disturbingly high’’ levels of stress and burnout among teachers, principals and other education leaders.
She blamed a shortfall in sup- port for students with learning and behavioural needs for contributing to ‘‘deeply distressing’’ level of stress in the teaching profession, and called for more support in areas of learning support.
Porirua East School principal Irene Unasa said she often spent a significant amount of time working with external agencies to get support for children with special needs.
‘‘I’m sitting on a telephone, trying to get hold of people who are putting me on to other people, and my calls aren’t being returned,’’ she said.
‘‘You multiply it by three or four [children] and it can be hours and hours of work before you even get a child into a school. Not enough funding is directed into the areas where it’s needed.’’
Ministry of Education deputy secretary of early learning student achievement Ellen MacGregor-Reid said a Teacher Quality and Wellbeing working group was established in September to address some of the issues.
‘‘Last year we began to test more flexible, better coordinated ways of providing learning support,’’ she said.
Education Minister Chris Hipkins is already dealing with what he describes as a ‘‘staggering’’ 40 per cent drop in student teachers – from 14,585 in 2010 down to 8895 in 2016.