Media release: Principals want to spend more time on educational leadership
11am Monday 6 November 2017
Principals of primary and intermediate schools want to spend less time on administration and paperwork, and 75% of them
want to spend more time on educational leadership, up from 59% in 2013.
These findings are from the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) National Survey of Primary and
Intermediate Schools 2016. The results show around two-thirds of principals worked 56 hours or more each week, and 42%
reported high or very high stress levels.
Experienced principals, often in larger schools, were less likely to report high stress levels than newer principals who
are often in smaller schools. They also seem to have more ability to focus on educational leadership, which may be
related to the higher levels of internal support in larger schools.
The findings show most principals actively seek support for their role, either from paid advisers, their own
organisations, or government-funded advice.
‘The government support that principals have for their role is more around the management aspects than educational
leadership, with little ongoing formal support for educational leadership after the programme for new principals,’ Chief
Researcher Cathy Wylie said.
‘The findings raise the question of how we develop and support capable leadership in all schools, and how that
capability and experience is used within the whole education system,’ Cathy Wylie said.
‘Only around a third of principals thought their workload was manageable or sustainable,’ Cathy Wylie said. ‘At the same
time, 90 percent of principals enjoy their role, and see gains for their students, teachers and schools from the work
they do.’
The NZCER survey got responses from a nationally representative sample of 349 English-medium state and state-integrated
primary and intermediate schools. The survey was conducted from August to September 2016.
The findings have been released in a series of reports, all of which are available on the NZCER website. The report ‘Principals and their work’ is available at: http://www.nzcer.org.nz/principals_national_survey_2016