Schools around the country shut as teachers strike

More than 700 schools will close today for the first of two one-day strikes by the teacher's unions in a dispute over reforms of the Junior Cert.

The row centres on Department of Education plans to overhaul the junior cycle - which would involve teachers assessing a portion of their own students exams.

Around 350,000 second-level students will stay home today as the TUI and ASTI down tools.

President of the ASTI, Philip Irwin, says they do not want to strike but teachers feel they have not been listened to.

"The strike is a last resort," he said. "We’ve had a very long campaign on Junior Cycle reform.

"We feel we haven't been listened to. This is a very important educational issue, we feel we're standing up for education, and for the standards of education across the country, and therefore we feel that this is necessary at this time."

However, Craig McHugh, President of the Irish Second Level Students Union, said that he is "deeply disappointed" that today's strike is going ahead.

"The feeling among many is that it is no longer about opposition to reform, but almost stubbornness," he said.

"The junior cycle was broken, and it's inadequate for the evolving world that we live in, and the problems outlined by the teaching unions, in my opinion, and in the [opinion of the] students I represent, does not justify industrial action as large as a strike."