SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS have announced they will be holding a second day of strike action over the ongoing dispute around reforms of the Junior Cycle.
The strike will take place on Thursday 22 January. The ASTI and TUI unions, which represent some 27,000 second level teachers, said this afternoon that a third strike day may also take place.
Both unions apologised to parents for any inconvenience caused by the industrial action, but said teachers were acting in the best interests of the education system.
TUI president Gerry Quinn said that teachers are ‘resolute’ in their opposition to the proposed changes to the Junior Cycle.
“Specifically, they are opposed to the proposed introduction of teachers assessing their own students and are gravely concerned by the lack of capacity of schools after several years of cutbacks to cope with the magnitude of the proposed changes,” he said.
The unions said that it was “clear to teachers on picket lines on December 2nd [the day of the first strike] that they had the support of parents in their communities”.
The decision to hold a second strike was announced by the standing committee of the ASTI and the executive committee of the TUI, following a ballot for industrial action earlier in the year.
Both unions said they are prepared to attend talks with a view to ending the current impasse.
“Teachers are in favour of positive, appropriately planned and fully resourced improvement and consistently campaign for this,” said ASTI president Philip Irwin.
“It is unfair to claim that teachers have not moved. Teachers support many improvements including increased use of project and portfolio work and a move away from an excessive reliance on a terminal examination. However, they want these externally assessed”.
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