Education Minister Richard Bruton is under pressure to provide the extra staff to allow students to be offered alternative subjects, in place of religion, at hundreds of second-level schools.

Latest: The Minister for Education, Richard Bruton, has "broadly welcomed" the move by the ETBI to no longer hold communion preparation classes during the school day at Community National Schools.

The opposition of most schools bodies to a proposed Ombudsman for Education suggests a fear of accountability, a Fine Gael TD has claimed.

Education Minister Richard Bruton’s plans to speed up the divestment of religious primary schools to new patrons face strong challenge as a multi-denominational schools group claims they prioritise the Catholic Church’s wishes over those of parents.

Plans to prevent the possible closure of secondary schools by teachers’ industrial action are being finalised by Education Minister Richard Bruton’s officials and school managers.

Community national schools should be managed by local boards — so says the head of the education and training boards which run them.

The number of apprenticeship options available is set to almost double with the creation of 25 new training programmes in careers from catering to truck-driving.

Education and Training Boards Ireland has been selected to manage two new schools in Cork and Wicklow.

Further talks between teacher unions and the Department of Education over the next five weeks will be key to the chances of a positive outcome on changes to junior cycle education.

The board of the former Cork County VEC received nearly six times more in payments and expenses than its city counterparts in the five years prior to the amalgamation of the two organisations, correspondence to the Public Account Committee has revealed.

The teachers’ strike, which will cause disruption to hundreds of thousands of students and parents today, looks set to spill into next year with the Government and unions entrenched.

Second-level teacher union leaders meet this morning under mounting pressure to discuss revised junior cycle reform plans instead of considering school strikes.

Schools will continue to turn to parents for financial support as another 1% cut to day-to-day funding goes ahead — despite an economic upturn that was not expected when it was flagged three years ago.

All three groups representing second-level schools say they support delays to some assessment by teachers of their junior cycle students — to help resolve an ongoing dispute.

In spite of the Department of Education’s decision to extend the timeframe for adding subjects to the new junior cycle, teachers are to be balloted for non-co-operation as they say many of their concerns have still not been addressed.

The growing mountain of paperwork involved in running schools that have no proper management structures is putting student-focused reforms at risk, Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has been warned.

The importance of creating a positive spirit in schools is key to the success of new anti-bullying procedures, a parents’ leader has said.