Second-level school principals are struggling to deal with school discipline, special needs, and industrial relations problems, mainly as a result of increased demands placed on them by recent legislation, new figures have indicated.
Out of a total of 15,000 calls - or over 1,200 a month - to its offices last year, the Joint Managerial Body (JMB), which represents the majority of second-level managers, estimates that more than one in 10 referred to issues of discipline within schools.
A further 5,600 referred to staffing issues, including appointments procedures and interviews for posts of responsibility, while 2,100 related to industrial relations problems such as disciplinary and complaints procedures, and employment appeals tribunals.
Other issues which featured prominently included requests for information on how best to deal with the requirements of special-needs students, and the implications of employment law for full and part-time teacher contracts.
According to the JMB, unless measures are introduced to train principals to meet their obligations under recent legislation, the State could face a significant increase in the amount of money which it will be forced to pay out as a result of litigation by parents, teachers and students.
The JMB says it has had to increase the number of staff it employs to deal with calls for support and advice from its members from four to 14 in the past five years alone.
Mr George O'Callaghan, general secretary of the JMB, said many school principals have insufficient training to deal with the legislative requirements placed on them by a "raft" of recent legislation.
This has led to a fall-off in the number of applicants for school principal jobs from 25-30 per post five years ago to as little as 10 in many cases, he said. "Our members are calling us looking for advice on a huge range of issues.
"In dealing with many situations, principals are faced with an unprecedented level of red tape and paperwork.
"For example, if a school makes a decision to exclude or suspend a pupil, very often they find this is overturned by the appeals process and they have to take the student back in - even if they don't have the resources to deal with or help that student.
"We don't have a problem per se with the appeals process ... but schools don't lightly take the decision to suspend or expel a pupil. There have to be resources there to allow you to deal with the problems which a seriously disruptive pupil had before they were excluded from the school."
There was also a "huge need" for principals to be provided with training to allow them to upskill in particular areas of legislation. This should be allied with increased administrative assistance for principals, he said.
"They are required to get to grips with a level of information that simply didn't exist eight to 10 years ago."