Statement from the Minister for Education and Youth on Senior Cycle Redevelopment

The Minister for Education and Youth Helen McEntee notes the announcement by the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) that its members have voted not to accept the package of further support measures negotiated between the Union and the department in recent weeks.

The package of Support Measures was published in early May followed an intensive engagement between the department and the ASTI, as well as the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI), following the Minister’s invitation to the Unions in early April.

Minister McEntee said:

Under the terms of the Public Service Agreement, ASTI members have committed to cooperating with Senior Cycle Redevelopment. In addition, in engagements before the ballot process, the ASTI confirmed to department officials that their members will teach the new and revised specifications from the next school year. So Senior Cycle Redevelopment will continue as planned.

The Minister also moved this evening to reassure students that the ASTI vote will not affect the implementation of targeted supports for students contained in the package:

As set out in the package, where applicable, the measures directly related to teachers and their conditions of employment apply only to those teachers who become parties to the agreement. The Minister has asked her officials to immediately begin work to prepare for the implementation of the commitments made in the package as applicable to students, schools, and teachers who have become parties to the agreement.

In the coming days, the department will seek to engage with the leadership of the TUI as it proceeds to implement the support measures. The department also continues to engage with other education partners including students, parents and school leaders.

The Minister wrote to both the TUI and ASTI in April confirming that the implementation of the first tranche of new and revised subjects would be introduced in schools from this coming September.

At the same time, the Minister acknowledged that teachers had a variety of concerns and sought to address those through an intensive engagement with the Unions. That engagement culminated in the publication of the Senior Cycle Implementation Support Measures document in early May. That document contains a broad ranging series of measures designed to support schools and teachers in the continued delivery of the vision for Senior Cycle redevelopment.

Significant progress has been made already in enhancing Senior Cycle for students including:

• publication in September 2024 of specifications for the first tranche of 7 revised and 2 new subjects to be introduced in schools in September 2025
• publication of guidelines on the completion of Additional Assessment Components (AACs) in the Tranche 1 subjects in December 2024
• publication of sets of sample examination papers in each of the Tranche 1 subjects in April 2025
• delivery by Oide of professional learning directly relevant to Senior Cycle Redevelopment to over 29,000 school leaders and teachers this school year, in whole school days, with further strong attendance at subject specific days focused on the Tranche 1 subjects
• payment of a Science Implementation Support Grant, worth €12 million, to schools in December 2024 to support in the introduction of the new Tranche 1 Science specifications, with enhanced support for DEIS schools
• publication of a Transition Year Programme Statement in September 2024
• record participation in Transition Year in the current school year at over 60,000 students for the first time
• publication of the Senior Cycle Level 1 and Level 2 Learning Programme Statement and initial modules in September 2024, with further modules due for publication shortly
• expanding access to the Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme (LCVP) Link Modules without meeting the criteria previously applicable since September 2022, resulting in significant growth in the numbers taking these modules
• enabling access for Leaving Certificate Applied (LCA) students to Leaving Certificate Established Mathematics and/or a Modern Foreign Language (MFL) since September 2022

Both post-primary teacher’s unions have now concluded ballots of their members on the Implementation Support Measures, with TUI voting to accept the agreement and the ASTI voting to reject it. The measures include supports such as:

• expanding the scope of the annual Physics and Chemistry Grant subject in the Leaving Certificate to include Biology and Agricultural Science, and almost doubling the level of the grant to €25 per student per qualifying subject
• establishing a dedicated Post of Responsibility in schools which offer Level 1/Level 2 Learning Programmes with effect from 1 September 2026
• bringing forward proposals to realise universal access to Transition Year
• reconfiguring, on an interim basis, of the operation of the whole school component of the Croke Park Hours (CPH) arrangements as applicable to teachers
• confirming the management side requirements to satisfy the local bargaining clause of the Public Sector Agreement, whilst noting that those elements are subject to approval by the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform in accordance with the Public Service Agreement
• developing a right to disconnect policy applicable to schools

Further details on the support measures.

As set out in the package, where applicable, the measures directly related to teachers and their conditions of employment apply only to those teachers who become parties to the agreement.

The package also makes reference to the Public Service Agreement 2024-2026 (PSA), to which both post-primary teachers’ unions are parties. Under the terms of the Public Service Agreement, both unions are committed to cooperation and engagement with all elements of the government’s Public Service Reform agenda, including Senior Cycle and Junior Cycle Reform.

The terms of the PSA include a commitment by all parties “to work closely to achieve the goal of delivering better public services”, noting that “this will require cooperation and engagement with all elements of the government’s Public Service Reform agenda” which, as set out in the Appendix to the PSA includes “Senior Cycle and Junior Cycle Reform”. Read the agreement.

On 30 May, Minister McEntee welcomed the announcement by the TUI that its members had voted to accept the package.