Secondary teachers should do their in-service training on Saturdays and outside school hours so the time is not taken out of the school year, school managers have said.
The organisation which represents school managers in over 400 schools, the Joint Managerial Body (JMB), said the school year was being "seriously eroded" for many students because teachers were going on in-service courses during school hours, sometimes for days.
While in-service was vital so teachers could keep abreast of developments in their subject, a new model involving teachers training outside schools was needed.
At present if teachers go on in-service a substitute teacher has to cover for them.
The Irish Times has learned that the Department of Education attempted to hold in-service courses in the last term of this school year, despite the days lost by students during the ASTI strike.
The Department's In-Career Development Unit wrote to the JMB proposing in-service for teachers of chemistry, biology and home economics.
It said chemistry in-service needed to be done in May because laboratories in third-level colleges were only available then. In-service for the other two subjects was needed, said the Department, so new syllabi could be introduced.
However, after the JMB objected, the in-service for biology and home economics was postponed until 2002-3, and chemistry is being scaled back.
The JMB general secretary, Mr George O'Callaghan, said: "In many respects the delivery of in-service to teachers causes as much erosion of teaching time as oral and practical examinations.
"It is the policy of this association that there should be no in-service in the final term of the school year," he said.
"We have told the Department of Education that school managers would not be in a position to release teachers for such courses at that time of the year.
"We recognise the need for the teachers to be properly trained in their subject area. It is vital that they have access to in-service in order to keep abreast of changes in curriculum and to become au fait with new syllabi."
The provision of in-service on Saturdays and outside school time should be seriously examined. "Teachers could be paid for this time. It appears to us that the extra costs involved would be negligible as much money is currently expended on the present model," he said.