Back in 2008, a review of all public sector pay came to the conclusion that everyone was being paid fairly except for a small proportion of university technicians and all 3,200 primary school principals. The principal allowance was to be upped significantly in some cases. Below are the figures from an old INTO Eolas leaflet.
Then the recession happened and primary principals got nothing. They have continued to get nothing and up until recently, nobody seemed to be calling for them to get anything. Thankfully, due to the work of grassroots members of the INTO, such as the National Principals’ Forum, that demand is back on the table. For principals of small schools, one can immediately see the huge difference benchmarking would make.
While it isn’t quite parity with second level principals, it’s a least somewhat of a start.
