Ministry: principal support available

The Ministry of Education has hit back at criticism from departing Taranaki principals over a lack of support for school leaders.

There are currently nine principal and deputy principal vacancies in Taranaki, and departing Lepperton Primary School principal Charles Gibson said he had been congratulated by many principals for getting out of the profession. The stresses of being a principal were putting people off the position, he said.

But Ellen MacGregor-Reid, deputy secretary of early learning and student achievement at the Ministry, said they didn’t want any principal to feel stressed and burnt out.

‘‘Any principal who is struggling and would like support should get in touch with our regional staff who are there to help,’’ she said.

She said work was underway to develop a workforce strategy that provides more real-time information so the needs of schools can be better met.

They are also starting a learning support update to address the issues faced by teachers trying to access help for students that need extra learning and behaviour support.

‘‘The focus is on making accessing support simpler, quicker and easier for all involved. A key intention of the update is to reduce some of the administrative burden on parents and teachers.’’

Lepperton School was also waiting for redevelopment of their leaky school buildings, which Gibson said was one of his biggest frustrations with the Ministry. MacGregor-Reid said they gained approval in 2015 and the plans were re-scoped in early 2016 to include extra teaching space as the roll grew.

‘‘Combining works in this way does mean delaying the next steps until we can allocate additional funding, but it also means that we can minimise disruption to school activities and reduce costs. Detailed design work has been completed for this project and tenders are currently out for construction services,’’ she said.