Teachers must teach new syllabi, warns Dempsey

STRIKING teachers must teach new Leaving Certificate material in biology and home economics despite their pay dispute, Education Minister Noel Dempsey has insisted.

His stern warning comes as the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland (ASTI) meets today to decide whether its 17,000 members should be balloted on whether to continue their ban on implementing new syllabi.

Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) members are already teaching elements of the new courses. But as part of its claim for a 30% pay increase from the Government, the larger secondary teachers’ union has refused to do in-service training to learn the syllabi.