Threat of industrial action in secondary schools as ASTI rejects Leaving Cert reforms

Members of Ireland's largest teaching union have voted to reject proposals to enable Leaving Cert reforms, and have also endorsed industrial action.

The ASTI ballot rejected proposals to adopt new support measures for the largest changes to the Leaving Cert in a hundred years – due to be implemented this September.

The union rejected the Department of Education proposal by a margin of 68% to 32%, raising the prospect of industrial action this autumn.

The support measures had already been endorsed by the other major secondary teaching union, the TUI.

In a statement, the union’s general secretary Kieran Christie said that the vote shows that second level teachers “have real and significant concerns” regarding the senior cycle overhaul programme.

He said that a key concern is a perceived lack of resources to aid teachers in implementing the new programme, which would see a minimum of 40% of marks at Leaving Cert level delivered by project work.

Teachers had expressed concerns as to how those reforms are to be effectively implemented, and how the growing challenge of Artificial Intelligence is to be handled, with the unions arguing that insufficient time had been given towards easing the transition to the new format.

Mr Christie said that the supports offered by the Department of Education, which included a commitment to early reviews of the implementation of the new reforms and the creation of specific posts of responsibility to support that implementation, “do little to provide a senior cycle experience for all students that addresses the core inequalities that are in place in the second-level system”.

Minister for Education Helen McEntee said she had noted the result of the ASTI’s vote, but said that, given the ASTI’s members had previously committed to cooperating with senior cycle redevelopment that the reforms would “continue as planned”.

“The implementation of the programme will continue with the introduction of the first tranche of new and revised Leaving Certificate subjects in September 2025 as previously announced,” the Minister said, adding that engagement with the TUI will ensue in the coming days for the implementation of the support measures that the ASTI has now rejected.

Last April, both the ASTI and TUI served warning of potential industrial action should the then-ongoing engagement with the Government regarding the controversial new reforms not reach an acceptable conclusion.