Teachers to strike amid reform impasse

Teacher unions will keep 340,000 students at home from second-level schools next month without balloting their members on junior cycle reform plans that are significantly different to the ones they agreed to strike against.

Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland and Teachers’ Union of Ireland leaders say their members oppose any form of assessing their own students for a state exam, even though concessions by Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan this week addressed most of their issues of concern.

Proposals for a new, school-certified award and for teachers to mark their own students’ final exams at the end of third year were still on the table in March when the unions’ combined 27,000 membership backed initial industrial action, and also in September when the ASTI voted to escalate to possible strikes.