Minister for Education Mary Hanafin, is facing her first major confrontation with the teacher unions after the INTO decided to withdraw co-operation with school inspections, writes Seán Flynn, Education Editor.
The union is withholding co-operation until its concerns about the planned publication of the school inspection reports - due to begin in June - are resolved.
INTO members say individual teachers will be identified and their reputations could be unfairly damaged by the planned publication on the Department of Education website.
They also say publication of about 300 reports this year would help the media to compile school league tables. Some 177 of these Whole School Evaluation (WSE) reports involve primary schools.
Last night, Ms Hanafin said she was disappointed by the INTO's decision. "The publication of these reports is a positive development for parents and for schools. Non co-operation would be a breach of the partnership agreement, Sustaining Progress", she said.
The INTO move could see primary teachers lose up to €1,200 in payments due under Sustaining Progress. The final 2.5 per cent pay increase due in June is contingent upon co-operation with "modernisation" measures such as school inspection.
The Minister had planned to roll out the publication of the school inspection reports from June. There is nothing to prevent her publishing school inspection reports already completed since last February when the teaching unions accepted new guidelines for the whole process, but such a move might be seen as provocative by the INTO.
It became clear at the conference yesterday that members believed they had not been fully consulted on what many teachers see as a fundamental change in their working conditions.
The Minister made the decision to publish reports as a response to what she has called an "information vacuum" on schools. The reports, she says, will provide parents with a "rounded" picture of everything that goes on in a school, unlike school league tables which focus only on exam results.
Delegates voted overwhelmingly for a motion which deplored the lack of consultation with the INTO prior to the decision to publish reports being made.
The INTO and the other teacher unions cleared the way for the department to publish the inspection reports earlier this year after agreeing guidelines for publication with the department.
These guidelines gave schools a right of reply to any criticisms made in the published report. This right of reply will be published at the same time on the department's website.
Other teaching unions - the ASTI and the TUI - may now also move to back the INTO stance. The INTO, which has over 27,000 members in the Republic, is the most powerful teaching union.
The INTO executive will meet shortly to consider the practical implications of yesterday's vote. The issue will also be forwarded to the teachers' conciliation council for discussion.
WSE reports cover teaching and learning in a school. They are not designed to target individual teachers but INTO members say teachers, especially in small schools, will be easy to identify.
Last night, John Carr, the INTO general secretary said teachers believe that there is no educational benefit to be achieved through the release of reports.
"They are concerned that the publication of the reports will lead to the identification of teachers. For example, it would be easy to identify persons such as the principal teacher or the learning support teacher or the teaching staff in a small school. This form of public commentary on a person's work is one to which no other worker is subjected."