Teachers have warned that schools which enlist the assistance of parents to remain open during their industrial action starting next week will face further closures as a result.
An internal memo from the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland (ASTI) says schools which let parents replace teachers as supervisors at breaks during the seven days of action will not be provided with a supervision service in the future.
Several boards of management have been contacted this week by parents offering to provide lunchtime and schoolyard supervision. Using parents would be "the same as strike-breaking", said an ASTI source last night.
Without such supervision in corridors and schoolyards, secondary schools cannot operate under health and safety regulations.
The ASTI begins its industrial action on Tuesday with a national strike, followed by six days of supervision withdrawal when classes will be cancelled for all pupils, including those doing exams.
The Government said yesterday there was still no decision on whether teachers would be paid for these six days.
The ASTI is planning to withdraw from out-of-class supervision for six out of the seven days and this will mean schools will be closed to pupils.
The ASTI memo means that any school which uses parents during the six days would also be closed afterwards. It does not say how long its members would abstain from providing supervision to a school which used parents but the memo says it would be "until further notice".
The memo has been sent to its school representatives in recent days.
The move envisaged would make it impossible for a school to remain open, the school managers' association, the Joint Managerial Body (JMB), said last night.
The general secretary of the JMB, Mr George O'Callaghan, advised schools not to call upon parents because they could face a "very difficult industrial relations climate" when the industrial action ended. He said he expected most schools would take the advice.
Teachers provide the service on a voluntary basis because the Department of Education refuses to employ others to do it.
Meanwhile, the general secretary of the ASTI, Mr Charlie Lennon, has reacted angrily to comments by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, in an article in The Irish Times yesterday in which he said teachers must work within the terms of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (PPF).
Mr Lennon said the comments were "unhelpful" at such a crucial time. He accused the Government of offering the ASTI no chance for "meaningful negotiations" over pay. The benchmarking process (set up under PPF) would not be effective in dealing with teachers' concerns.