ASTI members to be balloted on industrial action over Leaving Cert reform talks

Teachers vote in favour of the emergency motion on senior cycle changes at the ASTI annual conference in the Gleneagle INEC Killarney on Tuesday. Photo: Don MacMonagle

Post primary teachers are to be balloted for industrial action if talks with the Government over Leaving Cert reform do not achieve "an acceptable outcome".

On Tuesday an emergency motion on the matter was brought before the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland (ASTI) and it will come before members of the Teachers Union of Ireland on Wednesday.

The teaching unions and the Department of Education have been involved in intensive talks since early April, after the minister stated that the proposed senior cycle reforms – due to be implemented from the beginning of the next academic year in September – will go ahead as planned.

Unions had sought a one-year pause in order to ensure "adequate time and resources" for the implementation of the changes, amongst other concerns.

The new reforms, the most significant in over a century, would see the manner in which the Leaving Certificate swing towards project work as opposed to straight exams at the end of a student’s final year, with that non-exam work set to account for at least 40% of final marks in certain subjects.

The ASTI conference heard deis schools will be “wiped out” while private grind schools will thrive under the “inequitable” new senior cycle reform.

Major anger at the plans to push through the new system was expressed by teachers who said there had been inadequate planning and training and that the infrastructure necessary did not yet exist.

STEM subjects – an educational priority to equip students with the skills to thrive in high-value sectors like technology and pharmaceuticals – will particularly suffer as existing laboratory infrastructure and equipment cannot accommodate the lab work required under the proposed new syllabus, the conference heard.

This new senior cycle “madness” will impact poorer students and advantage wealthier pupils whose parents can pay for education, Dungarvan teacher Michael McGrath said.

Mr McGrath, a biology teacher for 40 years, said he would not know what to teach in his science subject if the new syllabus is implemented as planned in September.

“There’s chaos facing us,” he told the annual ASTI conference.

Although he always prepares students to achieve the top mark, a H1, in biology Leaving Cert, under the plans for the new senior cycle, he does not know how to do that and has not been shown.

Although it could be done by private schools, which could afford science lab infrastructure and equipment and hire lab technicians, “Deis schools will be wiped out".

The Senior Cycle redevelopment programme will be implemented in schools from September 2025. New and revised Leaving Cert subjects will include an Additional Assessment Component (AAC) – e.g. a research project – worth a minimum of 40% of a student’s grade.

The ASTI has stated that schools and the education system are not equipped to effectively implement the Senior Cycle redevelopment programme.

Teachers’ concerns include lack of resources in schools, insufficient training for teachers, and uncertainty about use of AI in AACs.

Recent ASTI research has revealed that 50% of school leaders say that their schools do not have a sufficient number of labs for the revised Leaving Cert Biology, Chemistry, and Physics subject specifications.

And the majority of teachers are concerned about authenticating students’ work for AACs, particularly in light of the fact that AACs will account for a minimum 40% of students’ Leaving Cert grades, the ASTI said.

The TUI’s motion will see the proposals emanating from the ongoing talks put to a ballot of the union’s affected membership.

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“Congress instructs that, in the event that these intensive talks fail to deliver an acceptable outcome that can be put to ballot, the TUI, in conjunction with the ASTI (where possible) will utilise all mechanisms available to the union, up to and including a ballot for industrial action, to defend professional standards and protect student outcomes,” the new motion adds.