School principals under greater pressure than ever

The Australian Education Union has released the State of our Schools Survey today, showing that Victorian public school principals are dealing with peak levels of stress and workload.

Meredith Peace, AEU Victorian branch president, said that this is symptomatic of a lack of funding and support to public schools under the current government.

"We are seeing principals having to do much more with less, and our research now shows that we have principals working an average of 59 hours a week, with no work life balance.

"The Government's autonomy agenda is leading greater levels of responsibility for principals at a time where resources and support are being cut. Recent calls for increased autonomy at schools should be matched with increased support from the Department and schools simply do not have that.

"Parents have an expectation that their kids will be provided with the best education possible, but our principals are having to be creative with the way they do that, but there's simply not enough funding or support to deliver.

"We also see all school staff not being offered adequate training and professional development to be able to provide appropriate support to students who need it most, so we have students falling through the cracks."

Peace says the survey makes it clear that we need more funding and greater of support for our school leaders now.

The AEU is calling on all political parties to make commitments to support our public schools and Victorian children.