Principals look to Hipkins to relieve pressure on schools

<h2 class&equals;"story-top" style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Much of the pressure on school principals could be relieved by three changes&comma; says president of the New Zealand Principals&&num;8217&semi; Federation&comma; Whetu Cormick&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&&num;8220&semi;The profession has been through a tough decade&period; We have not only seen a reduction in school funding but also a reduction in the status and value attributed to the profession which makes it an unattractive career option&period; At the same time there has been an increase in the demands and complexities of school leadership&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&&num;8220&semi;I believe three things could make a difference straight away&period; These include reducing paper work and compliance that don&&num;8217&semi;t help young people learn better&comma; increasing the number of leadership advisers available to support principals in their role and giving the operations grants an immediate boost&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&&num;8220&semi;We look forward to discussing these matters with our new minister&comma; Chris Hipkins&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Mr Cormick was responding to findings from the New Zealand Council for Education Research &lpar;NZCER&rpar; which reveal that 42 per cent of principals are reporting high levels of stress because their operations grants are insufficient to run their schools&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;