There has been mixed reaction from teachers' unions and the business sector on proposals to reform the Junior Certificate cycle at second level.
The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland said the plans must be made "fail-proof" before they were introduced.
Responding to the publication of the Towards a Framework for Junior Cycle document by Minister for Education and Skills Ruairi Quinn, ASTI general secretary Pat King said second-level teachers were passionate about their students receiving a high quality and relevant education.
She said there was "an urgent need to fill the significant information gaps" in the document, which would be immediately evident to teachers who read it. There had been "dozens" of questions from teachers to the union's head office.
The Teachers’ Union of Ireland said it accepted the need for reform but this must be “underpinned by a full commitment to the availability of the necessary resources for the implementation of any change”.
The union’s general secretary, Peter MacMenamin, said there was a “real fear” among teachers that without these resources, reform “could do more harm than good at a time when the education system is struggling to tread water”.
He said the past three years had seen progressive decreases in the resources available to schools, yet the resource implications of the proposals for change had not been analysed.
Business body Ibec welcomed the plans for reform of the exam.
Head of education policy Tony Donohoe said: "This could be the most important education reform of recent years. An overhaul of the current over-crowded, rigid and subject-based curriculum is long overdue. The current system does not encourage the types of creativity, flexibility, independent thinking and appetite for learning that are so critical in later stages of education and in the workplace."
Mr Donohoe said that to introduce it successfully, teachers would require adequate professional development and that schools would need to be supported by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment.