Teachers striking at schools across offaly

Strikes are taking place outside secondary schools across Offaly today.

The second one day strike by the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland(ASTI) and the Teachers Union of Ireland(TUI) stems from an impasse over the Department of Education’s proposed reform of the Junior Cycle.

The presidents of the ASTI and TUI this morning reiterated that they are willing to engage in talks without preconditions in a bid to resolve the dispute.

However, they stated that today’s strike is necessary because there has been no breakthrough on teachers’ key concerns and because the Department of Education and Skills has refused the unions’ request to defer implementation of the Framework for Junior Cycle until the dispute is resolved.

“Teacher unions have no option but to proceed with strike action on January 22ndas to date talks have not produced a breakthrough. We already have an independent, objective, transparent and rigorous State examinations model which maintains public trust, and teachers fully support a move away from an excessive reliance on final written examinations. However, we believe that the introduction of school-based assessment for certification poses a serious threat to the credibility of the examination process,” said Gerry Quinn, TUI President.

According to ASTI President Philip Irwin, “we want a first class Junior Cycle education for all students. We fully agree that project work, portfolio work, practical work, and other methods of evaluating student learning are vital elements of a modern, forward-looking system, but we believe that they should be externally assessed for certification purposes. There are also serious and justified concerns over the capacity and school and system level to deal with the current proposals. We believe a resolution can be found, but teachers’ serious concerns must be listened to and addressed. Teachers must have confidence in the change they are implementing in their classrooms.”

The ASTI Standing Committee and TUI Executive Committee are to consider further industrial action over the Framework for Junior Cycle in the coming weeks.