The ASTI leadership remained divided over its position on supervision and benchmarking last night after several hours of talks.
Some members of the union's standing committee remain totally opposed to the current €37 an hour supervision offer, while others maintain that teachers should have the opportunity to undertake such work. The discussions resume this morning in Dublin.
The union's honorary treasurer, Ms Patricia Wroe, also made a presentation at the meeting, which outlined a range of options for the union in relation to pay and supervision. It is understood the options ranged from resuming full strike action to accepting benchmarking and the supervision offer.
Sources said the presentation was well received, although there was little support for strike action and most members spoke in favour of a more moderate course.
Benchmarking is opposed by several members of the standing committee, but another group wants to see how it is phased in before they make a final decision.
Many standing committee members want to hold a firm line on the supervision issue but the position of "dual union" schools, where ASTI and TUI members work alongside, complicates matters.
From now on TUI members in these schools will be able to undertake supervision work for €37 an hour, while ASTI members will not. Some ASTI members believe its current ban on supervision is unfair to members in these schools.
The ASTI president, Mr P.J. Sheehy, has said if supervision was made pensionable it might look at the package more favourably.
TUI president Mr Derek Dunne said the last minister for education, Dr Woods, had agreed to make supervision pensionable. He said the TUI and the INTO had been negotiating over the summer to finalise the issue. "We expect to have a final agreement shortly on the pensionability issue; next Thursday is the deadline for it and that has been agreed with the Department of Education."
The ASTI, meanwhile, hopes to get direct talks going with the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey. If talks are granted with Mr Dempsey the union might relax its stance on supervision and benchmarking.
Mr Dempsey has been adopting a more conciliatory stance in relation to ASTI in recent weeks. For example, he granted a moratorium on the introduction of the revised Leaving Certificate home economics and biology syllabi recently.