The industrial dispute at the Department of Education in Athlone has led to the postponement of the assessment of task work by 3,300 Applied Leaving Certificate students and remains unresolved.
A Department spokesman said that because of the dispute, involving the Public Service Executive Union, which is seeking more staff to deal with recent increases in its members' workload, it had not been possible to complete the required administrative work to allow the assessments to go ahead this week.
However he stressed that the assessment could "still take place in several weeks' time without significantly affecting the pupils involved."