Positions of Responsibility (or is it Posts of Responsibility?) are promoted posts in Irish schools. They are management positions. In primary schools they used to be known as A and B Posts but they have now been renamed Assistant Principal I and Assistant Principal II posts.
Back before the recession, generally about half of a school staff had one of these positions. After that there was a moratorium. When the recession finished the INTO demanded they were replaced and issued a directive that schools would not complete SSE (don’t worry if you don’t know what this is) so the government gave about 45% of positions back to schools and the INTO then said that schools would only engage in about half of SSE…. oh wait, no… they dropped the directive completely.
Anyway, I’ve always had a problem with these posts. They also seemed fairly divisive and when I was a teacher, conversations generally went along the lines of “I can’t believe how much work I’m doing for this school and I don’t have a post. Look at Mary (most teachers are called Mary) sure she does nothing for her post.”
This didn’t seem to extend to AP1 teachers as their jobs tended to be more leadership-oriented. However, maybe I just didn’t hear those conversations!
Anyway, I think everyone should have an AP2, which means I don’t think anyone should have an AP2. I believe that all teachers should have a subject or area speciality and lead on it and, obviously, get paid for it.
I do think AP1 positions are needed but I think they need to be defined. Examples might include: DLP, Attendance, SET co-ordinator, ICT, etc.
Until then, the government need to restore posts back to the levels before the moratorium.
