ASTI calls for pause to Leaving Cert laboratory projects on health and safety grounds

Laboratory investigations form a crucial part of the additional assessment component aspect of the Leaving Certificate. File picture: Ben Birchall

The main secondary school teaching union has called on the Department of Education to “urgently take steps” to pause laboratory projects for Leaving Certificate subjects on health and safety grounds.

Delegates at the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) annual convention in Wexford voted on an emergency motion calling for the department to “fully implement” a recommendation that lab-based investigations be “paused immediately” due to requisite conditions not being present in all schools.