An annual survey by Australian Catholic University has revealed that escalating threats and violence, punishing workloads, and chronic staff shortages have hit school principals hard nation-wide.
ACU’s Australian Principal Occupational Health, Safety, and Wellbeing survey catalogues “red flag” alert emails, which are triggered when school leaders are at risk of self-harm, occupational health problems, or serious impact on their quality of life.
An alarming 47.8 per cent of 2,500 Australian principals triggered red flag alerts in 2022.
ACT principals triggered the highest rate of alerts, with 58.5 per cent of local school leaders identified to be at risk of serious mental health concerns.
However, Northern Territory (57.4 per cent), New South Wales (55.7 per cent) and Western Australia (52.2 per cent) were nearly as high.
This could be attributed to offensive behaviours towards principals escalating in the past year, with 44 per cent subjected to physical violence – the highest figure recorded since the survey started in 2011.
Again, ACT principals reported the highest rate of physical violence and/or threats from students at 80.5 per cent, followed by Northern Territory at 75.5 per cent.
Victoria’s principals saw the lowest rate of reported threats, physical violence, and cyberbullying against them, at 32.8 per cent.
Researchers found that parents and caregivers were responsible for one third of threats of violence.
One in two school leaders are at risk of serious mental health concerns, including burnout and stress.
Red flag alerts jumped by 64.26 per cent in 2022, with special school principals faring the worst, where 56.3 per cent triggered red flag emails.
Government school principals closely followed with 51.8 per cent, compared to 35.3 per cent of their Catholic school counterparts, and 27.7 per cent of independent school principals.
The percentages were higher for female principals across all sectors.
The latest revelations follow the release of early survey findings showing heavy workloads, lack of time, and teacher shortages were driving school principals towards resignation and early retirement, with the number of principals wanting to quit or retire early tripling.
Burnout, stress, anxiety, depression, and alcohol and/or drug use were the top five sources of concern for staff.
When it came to their students, principals were most worried about anxiety, school refusal, depression, stress, self-harm, and bullying/victimisation.
Australian principals work 56 hours a week on average.
Job satisfaction, mutual trust between employees, and trust in management have plummeted to the lowest levels since the survey started.
Educational psychologist Professor Herb Marsh, who has been at the helm of the report since 2016, said it was a sobering look into the mental health of our nation’s school leaders.
“There is an urgency in our call for action as the time to redress these concerns diminishes. We may see a mass exodus from the profession, and the implication for Australian education would be devastating,” Professor Marsh said.
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