Teaching union votes to accept controversial Leaving Cert reforms

Members of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) have voted by a margin of 73 per cent to 27 per cent to accept a package of supports aimed at easing the roll-out of controversial Leaving Certificate reforms.

The outcome of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) ballot on the same issue is due next Friday.

The strength of the TUI vote, however, looks likely to avert the threat of industrial action across second level schools in the autumn.

It also paves the way for curriculum changes which seek to broaden assessment and ease pressure facing Leaving Cert students.

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The reforms will see students awarded a minimum of 40 per cent for project work or practicals across all subjects.

Minister for Education Helen McEntee, who has pushed ahead with the reforms despite calls for a pause from teaching unions, welcomed the outcome of the TUI vote.

She thanked the union for its “positive engagement” during recent negotiations and for its “commitment to finding a shared path forward to the continued implementation of senior cycle redevelopment for the benefit of all students”.

Teaching unions’ annual conferences at Easter heard concerns that laboratories were ill-equipped for the volume of new research projects for physics, chemistry and biology.

It was also stated that the changes would benefit affluent schools with access to more resources.

During subsequent negotiations with teaching unions, the Department of Education announced a support package aimed at easing the roll-out of the reforms, which begin for fifth year students in September next.

The package clarified that pay increases of up to 5 per cent, due under the public sector pay deal, were contingent on co-operating with senior cycle reforms.

It also offered pledges of flexibility in relation to so-called Croke Park hours and a shorter qualifying period for teachers to attain job permanency by way of a contract of indefinite duration.

In addition, the support package pledged to address teachers’ concerns over workload and authenticating students’ work against a backdrop of rapid developments in artificial intelligence (AI), among other issues.

The TUI’s executive committee had recommended acceptance, stating that it believed the measures were the “best that could be achieved through negotiation”.

The ASTI, on the other hand, did not issue any recommendation to members.

In a statement on Friday evening, the TUI said it made clear at all times that the ballot was on the “acceptability of the implementation measures and not the actual curriculum”, which the Minister has the power to prescribe under the Education Act and “which other stakeholders have no veto over”.

TUI president David Waters said its members had assessed the support package for senior cycle implementation and voted to accept it.

“However, it is clear that they still have a range of concerns around various issues related to the redevelopment process, and we will be insisting that the department honours the commitments set out in the negotiated document,” Mr Waters said.

He said members still had concerns about the system capacity for the roll-out of the science subjects in schools that have been “chronically under-resourced”, the potential risks to assessment posed by AI and the additional resourcing required to ensure that “no students, particularly those in Deis settings, are put at a disadvantage by any of the changes”.

“It is now imperative that these and any other arising issues are urgently addressed,” Mr Waters said.

Earlier this week, the TUI welcomed a report in The Irish Times of a delay in the implementation of changes in English and accounting until September 2027. The reforms – including oral exams for English – were due to roll out in September 2026.