The action is expected to cause significant disruption to the administration of the schools' sector without affecting students or parents.

The potential legal action specifically relates to the Government imposing "punitive" financial penalties on teachers after they took industrial action three years ago.

A leading teachers' union has indicated it will seek additional pay benefits, following the Government's recent settlement with nurses.

Teachers have warned that any attempt to introduce assessment of students by their teachers as part of reform of the Leaving Certificate will be strenuously resisted.

Secondary school teachers are threatening to stop supervising pupils in a row over pay.

Hundreds of schools could be forced to close this term after a pay dispute between secondary teachers and Government deepened over the weekend.

WITH the 18,000 members of the powerful ASTI secondary teachers’ union poised to vote on whether or not to embark on yet another campaign of industrial action, the prospect of school closures has increased following Saturday’s decision to ballot more than half of the country’s second-level teachers.

Pressure over the deepening junior cycle row is putting some second-level teachers in danger of losing their jobs, it has been claimed.

Further industrial action in secondary schools is looming after teachers voted to cease working additional hours they say are no longer required when past pay deals expire this summer.

Career pay differentials of up to €300,000 between older and younger teachers look set to be another headache for the next government.

Around 11,000 Junior Certificate students completed their music exams in the morning, having already done some elements earlier in the year.

The applied maths paper taken by more than 1,500 higher-level Leaving Certificate students was an encouragement for others to pursue the subject.

THE last day of the Leaving Certificate marked the first examination of a new Technology syllabus in an exam which students felt was hard to finish on time.

MORE than 4,500 Leaving Certificate students got the chance to come up with their own solutions to the Government’s budget crisis in two very topical economics papers yesterday morning.

ABOUT 4,500 Leaving Certificate students sat economics papers featuring very topical issues yesterday.

ALMOST two-thirds of second-level teachers claim to have been bullied in their schools, and the problem is getting worse, the ASTI conference heard yesterday.