The Department of Education has only itself to blame for yesterday's disruption in all but a handful of secondary schools. For a decade and more, the main teacher unions and management bodies have been demanding a proper structure for breaktime supervision.
Members of religious orders were content to do this work without payment a generation ago. With their numbers declining in schools, some alternative arrangement was required.
In response to the demands for action, the Department sat on its hands.
It was content to allow the education system to muddle through with a shambolic system whereby teachers "volunteered" to supervise - even though this was not covered by their teaching contract.
The wonder is that teachers put it up with it for so long. The result of this inaction is that the second-level education system has been brought to its knees by the withdrawal of voluntary labour. It is hard to imagine any other sector of the economy where this would be allowed to happen.
There is already the sound of stable doors being bolted. The Government is planning to include funds towards supervision in next month's Budget, which would allow schools to bring in outsiders as supervisors. But for 350,000 students and their parents, it is already too late.
Secondary school students will be forced to remain at home for a further two days next week - and for three days in the following week - as members of the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland (ASTI) again withdraw from supervisory duties.
This is an appalling scenario for both students and their parents. In most homes, parents will be scrambling around to make other arrangements. It is difficult to envisage this being allowed to happen if parents' groups enjoyed any kind of political clout. But they have very little.
Parents may underwrite the entire education system through their taxes but they remain very much second-class citizens in a system dominated by strong, well-financed, vested interests.
In this teachers' dispute, both the ASTI and the Department of Education are spending a small fortune on spin-doctoring and public relations. But the only media voice for parents is the National Parents' Council - Post-Primary (NPCPP) which is essentially a part-time pressure group.
The NPCPP receives £92,000 from the Department of Education every year. It has no full-time staff but it employs one clerical assistant under the community employment scheme. Its two main spokespersons work on a voluntary basis. Ms Rose Tully, its president, is a former primary teacher; Mr John Whyte, its main spokesman, is a farmer from Co Tipperary.
The extent to which the NPCPP represents the authentic voice of parents is also open to question. The NPCPP, a limited company, is made up of five bodies with nominating rights.
Its members include nominees drawn from parents' associations in Catholic voluntary schools, vocational schools, the community and comprehensive sector, minority religions and Christian Brothers' schools. Only one in three of the 750-odd secondary schools in the State is formally affiliated to these parent bodies.
Because the organisation is so well-embedded into the education system, there appears to be little incentive to rock the system. It is not given to controversial statements. One member says: "We try and deal with issues with the education partners behind closed doors." It has advised parents to keep children at home during the current phase of the ASTI dispute - even though some parents were willing to provide lunchtime supervision. Precisely how and on what basis decisions are made is unclear.
In contrast to the NPCPP, parents are much better represented at primary level. The NPC (Primary) has a full-time chief executive and full-time staff. Its membership is drawn directly from school parent associations while its chief executive, Ms Fionnuala Kilfeather, is a provocative voice in Irish education.
Something similar is required at post-primary level. It might not prevent industrial action. But it would at the very least ensure that parents do not continue to punch well below their weight in Irish education.