Unsustainable workloads impacting school principals

<p data-ogsb&equals;"white">The Australian Education Union Victorian Branch says the alarming findings of the Victorian Auditor-General’s report are a warning sign that urgent measures need to be taken to avoid principal burnout and a mass exodus from the profession&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p data-ogsb&equals;"white">T<span data-ogsc&equals;"black">he report shows that despite the Department introducing a range of important initiatives to tackle principal health and wellbeing&comma; principal workloads remain a critical problem&comma; causing ongoing harm&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p data-ogsb&equals;"white"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;school-news&period;com&period;au&sol;latest-print-issue&sol;"><strong>Read the Term 2 edition of <em>School News<&sol;em> HERE<&sol;strong><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p data-ogsb&equals;"white"><span data-ogsc&equals;"black"> <&sol;span><span data-ogsc&equals;"black">AEU Victorian Branch President Meredith Peace said the situation is particularly severe in Victoria’s public schools&comma; where principals are dealing with dire teacher shortages and don’t have the support and resources required to provide the support and programs students need&comma; due to the lack of full and fair funding&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p data-ogsb&equals;"white"><span data-ogsc&equals;"black">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Workloads for Victorian public school principals have been unmanageable for many years&comma; and the role and expectations of principals is entirely unsustainable&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p data-ogsb&equals;"white"><span data-ogsc&equals;"black"> <&sol;span><span data-ogsc&equals;"black">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The chronic teacher shortage in our state&comma; on top of existing workload and other challenges&comma; has forced principals to shoulder additional teaching and administrative responsibilities&comma; pushing them to the brink of burnout and quitting the profession&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p data-ogsb&equals;"white"><span data-ogsc&equals;"black">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;In a <a href&equals;"mailto&colon;https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;aeuvic&period;asn&period;au&sol;teacher-shortages-reach-crisis-point" data-ogsc&equals;"" data-linkindex&equals;"7">survey<&sol;a> we conducted with Victorian public school principals last year&comma; almost 90 per cent of the respondents were concerned about not having teachers in front of classrooms in 2023&period; This fear has&comma; unfortunately&comma; materialised in many cases and is still not being adequately addressed&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p data-ogsb&equals;"white"><span data-ogsc&equals;"black">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The Victorian Auditor General&&num;8217&semi;s report on Principal health and wellbeing has only confirmed what we have been hearing from our members on a regular basis&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p data-ogsb&equals;"white"><span data-ogsc&equals;"black">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Increasing attrition rates and falling numbers of applicants for principal positions&comma; sends a stark message that public school principals in Victoria need far greater support to continue doing the valuable work they do&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p data-ogsb&equals;"white"><span data-ogsc&equals;"black">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The Andrews’ Government must urgently tackle the teacher and principal shortage in public schools through more comprehensive and targeted measures&period; This includes efforts to attract new teachers and retain existing staff in the profession through a range of incentives and further reduce their workloads&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p data-ogsb&equals;"white"><span data-ogsc&equals;"black">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The chronic underfunding of public education in Victoria not only has had dire consequences for public school principals and their staff&comma; but it also risks impacting students’ educational outcomes&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p data-ogsb&equals;"white"><span data-ogsc&equals;"black">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We urge the Andrews’ government to deliver the bold reforms that are needed urgently to relieve principal and teacher workload&comma; and to attract and retain enough qualified teachers&period; Further delay will only exacerbate an already critical problem&period;”<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;