STUDENTS have done it tough during the recent years of COVID-19 restrictions – but spare a thought for school principals who are close to burnout.
A new study – the Australian Principal Occupational Health and Wellbeing Survey 2021 – reveals Australian school leaders are suffering the highest burnout rates in a decade, and are subjected to physical threats at a rate five times greater than the general population.
Yet even with the high demands of school leadership, 82 per cent of educators who participated in the annual study conducted by Australian Catholic University’s Institute for Positive Psychology and Education reported increased connection with their school families.
“While confronting in many ways, school leaders have been champions of resilience, professionalism, and unyielding commitment to their school communities,” IPPE co-chief investigator Dr Theresa Dicke said.
“In times of crisis, they deliver, but for how long? Principals play a vital role in communities, so our overriding message is for the shameful treatment of our overburdened educators to stop.”
Now in its 11th year, the longitudinal study surveyed 2590 school leaders across all states and territories and made policy recommendations to both government and key stakeholders.
The feedback to IPPE investigators was bleak. Principals are sacrificing their long-term health for jobs that inflict on them unbearable stress.
Co-chief investigator IPPE Professor Herb Marsh said the soaring demands on school bosses were unsustainable.
“Principals and their deputies worked on average at least 55 hours a week. A quarter of those reported working more than 60 hours a week so it’s unsurprising the sheer quantity of work is the top stress factor,” Professor Marsh said.
“What the 2021 survey tells us is the younger and less experienced ones are reporting higher levels of stress than their more experienced peers.”
More than half of all Queensland school principals (51.6 per cent) received threats of violence, while 43.9 per cent reported actual physical violence.
In Queensland, 32.8 per cent of principals reported cyber bullying.
Across the country burnout (physical and mental fatigue) and cognitive stress levels were the highest since the survey started in 2011.
After an easing of stressors while so many schools were under Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, more principals triggered red flag alerts in 2021 than in the first year of the pandemic.
Of those who received red flag emails, four-in-10 were aged 31-40.
“Principals and their deputies have given blood above and beyond what’s expected of the role,” ACU investigator and former principal Dr Paul Kidson said.
“They’ve revealed an unbreakable backbone and a commitment to care for their students, staff and communities.
“More than 40 per cent were threatened and four-in-10 were subjected to physical violence, the second-highest incidence since the survey’s inception in 2011. At this rate, half of all school leaders will endure physical violence by 2025.”
Among the aims of the project was the capacity to generate an immediate alert, or red flag, to survey participants reporting signs of concerning stress levels from at least one of quality of life, occupational health and self-harm risk.
There are 14 key recommendations including developing and implementing coherent national teaching workforce training, supply, retention and remuneration policies and practices, and engaging directly with principals on reducing job demands or increasing job resources.
Australian Primary Principals Association president Malcolm Elliott said the survey data should be the catalyst for meaningful, systemic change.
“The time is long overdue for governments to welcome to the table those who have the most workable ideas for how to re-design a cracked system – the principals,” Mr Elliott said.
