Efforts to halt school strikes will go to wire

Efforts to avoid the first of seven second-level school strikes going ahead in a week’s time will go to the wire after talks between the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland and Department of Education were adjourned until Monday.

The union’s 18,000 members are due to picket more than 500 second-level schools next Thursday in a campaign for equal pay for younger teachers.

However, schools could remain shut for weeks after the mid-term break when a separate industrial action will see ASTI members stop supervising students outside class times, or substituting for absent colleagues from Monday, November 7.