The Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) has postponed a decision on issuing a directive to primary teachers on non-cooperation with school inspections.
The directive was demanded by delegates at the union's annual conference, which was held last month.
INTO has been in dispute with the Minister for Education Mary Hanafin over plans to publish school inspection reports.
Reports on 177 primary and 48 second-level schools are due to be published on the Department of Education's website later this year, with some being made available from the end of next month. Although the reports cover teaching and learning in schools and are not meant to identify individuals, the union had expressed concerns that individual teachers would be easy recognised.
INTO had called for a range of additional safeguards to be implemented in order to protect its members including an expanded complaints procedure for teachers criticised in the reports. It also wanted a common agreed system for the manner in which reports would be written.
The union's executive committee decided late this afternoon to postpone making a decision on non-cooperation and said it would instead seek an immediate meeting with officials from the Department of Education to discuss outstanding issues of concern to teachers.
INTO's general secretary John Carr said that in the light of growing industrial unrest in the country he hoped the Department and the union could positively engage to resolve the issue. He said that Sustaining Progress had not committed the INTO to publication of reports but reiterated the union's view that school information should be made available to members of the school community, including parents.