This year's exams are facing another potential threat from secondary teachers following a decision last night by the ASTI to ballot its members on the issue.
The union is planning to ballot its 17,000 members on the revised Labour Court package at the end of the month, but last night it decided to also hold a ballot on exams.
If members vote to re-impose a ban on exam work the Department of Education would be forced to revert to its contingency plans, which are on hold.
The union's 22-member standing committee decided on the ballot at a meeting in Dublin. The vote in favour is understood to have been eight votes to seven. The remainder were either abstentions or members who could not attend.
The two ballot questions will be separate. Until now the ASTI was going to debate the exams issue at its annual conference in Galway starting on Tuesday, but many on the standing committee want rank-and-file members to decide.
At present the union's ban on exam work is suspended, and the question likely to face members is whether they want to see an exam ban re-imposed or the suspension to continue.
Union sources were divided last night on the outcome. Many said ordinary members remained angry because the Government and media were claiming the union was defeated.
Despite this mood, union sources said most teachers remained unhappy with the idea of re-imposing the exam ban. Some also believed it would be unfair to re-impose it this late in the year.
The most likely outcome is that members will reject both the Labour Court package and the resumption of an exam ban.
This would leave the union's central executive council with the task of plotting the way forward. They would have a range of options, including more strikes in May or September and/or withdrawing co-operation with Department of Education programmes.
If the Labour Court package is accepted then the union would enter the benchmarking process along with the other unions, the INTO and the TUI.
The Department of Education is watching developments closely. It has received 10,500 expressions of interest from members of the public who want to supervise exams, although it has stressed that it would rather have the ASTI involved.
It has not advertised for correctors, although it may have to in the aftermath of last night's decision.
Tensions are high within the ASTI, with the president, Mr Don McCluskey, in recent days circulating a letter which was highly critical of members of the union's standing committee.
He claimed some of the members were trying to frustrate his chairing of meetings.