Secondary teachers, in a serious escalation of their dispute, have backed a series of three-day strikes and a ban on exam work next year.
From mid-January, over 620 schools will close for two in every seven schooldays. In a campaign of rolling action, schools will close in Dublin on Tuesday, January 15th; in the rest of Leinster on January 16th; in Munster on January 17th; and in Connacht/Ulster on January 22nd. The cycle would then begin again in Dublin.
The plan is to close schools in one of the four regions on every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday until the dispute is resolved.
There will be no exemption for Leaving Cert and Junior Cert students. This is despite pleas from some parents' groups and students.
Members of the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland (ASTI) will also withdraw from all exam work from February 3rd. In practical terms, this could see Leaving oral exams, due to begin in late March, being seriously delayed for some 60,000 students.
The Department of Education depends on a panel of secondary teachers, mostly ASTI members, to prepare marking schemes and act as examiners. These examiners would also attend several preparatory conferences before the oral exams formally begin on March 29th. Practical and aural exams could also be disrupted by the ASTI action.
The Minister for Education, Dr Woods, said: "I am shocked at the nature of the statement from the ASTI. I cannot believe that secondary teachers in this country would wish to disrupt the Leaving and Junior Certificate exams. It is nothing less than the holding of the futures of the children involved to ransom.
"The intransigence of the ASTI leadership in the face of the benefits of the PPF and the Budget will be viewed with dismay by thousands of children and their parents."
The decision to escalate the strike is set to unleash a new wave of parent protests. Both the National Parents' Council and the main Catholic parent group expressed outrage at the ASTI decision.
The parents' council, which has been slow to criticise the ASTI action, said the threat to exams was the final straw. Its spokesman, Mr John Whyte, said the union no longer had the council's support. "We warned them that we would go overboard if they threatened the exams. We are horrified and disappointed."
Ms Barbara Johnston, of the Congress of Catholic Secondary School Parent Association, said it would be considering further parent protests. She called on the Minister to open talks with the ASTI outside the parameters of the Programme for Partnership and Prosperity (PPF).
The decision to escalate the action was backed by a large majority of ASTI's 180-member executive on Saturday. To date, its action has closed schools to some 350,000 students for eight days this term. The next one-day strike, the last before Christmas, is due on Thursday.
ASTI's decision to step up its campaign comes after discussions on a peace deal between the Department and ASTI officials broke down last week. The deal collapsed when the Government refused to sanction any offer outside (PPF). Unlike the other teaching unions, ASTI walked out of the PPF process earlier this year.
So far, the union's action has failed to draw any response from Government. Despite the disruption to students and their parents, the ASTI strike has been overshadowed by the taxi dispute and other industrial action.
One ASTI member said it was now time to "turn up the heat and bring matters to a conclusion".
ASTI's general secretary, Mr Charlie Lennon, said the onus was now on the Government to resolve the dispute. It could not continue to ignore a union which had managed to mobilise 12,000 of its 16,000 members for last week's protest march.
Mr Don McCluskey, the ASTI president, said the ban on exam work was an action of last resort.
Mr Lennon said the union's demand for a 30 per cent pay increase could not be addressed by benchmarking.