Schools stay shut after talks end in stalemate

There is no certainty when most of the 400-plus second-level schools that have been forced to close today might reopen again.

Talks ended around 6.30pm yesterday at the Department of Education, where Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) representatives had also spent Saturday afternoon seeking a resolution to their various disputes.

But with no breakthrough emerging, over 400 of the country’s 730 second-level schools will not reopen this morning after the mid-term break of the past week. Over 370 are voluntary secondary schools — run by or for religious orders — which are staffed almost entirely by ASTI members.