Teachers at Synge Street CBS say they may be forced to take industrial action if the school’s patron continues its “zero consultation” approach to plans to turn the 160-year-old Dublin school into a Gaelcholáiste.
However, the Edmund Rice Schools Trust (ERST) – which oversees the school and owns the property – has pledged to press ahead with plans to begin enrolling and teaching students through Irish from September 2026 onwards.
It said Synge Street CBS was experiencing “serious sustainability challenges” due to declining enrolment and, as a result, would face the redeployment of a significant proportion of its staff over the coming years – further undermining enrolment.
The trust said this was the context that informed Synge Street CBS’s board of management’s request at the end of May last year for a change of status to a coeducational Gaelcholáiste.
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At a lunchtime protest outside the school on Thursday, Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) president Donal Cremin said students, parents and teachers “continue to be ignored, bypassed and disregarded”.
“This is despite the fact that earlier this year the school board of management declared its opposition to the ERST changes being introduced in 2026.”
Mr Cremin said: “ASTI teachers at the school continue to call for a pause in this unilaterally imposed decision, to allow for consultation with staff, parents and students.”
He said a pause for a year would allow teachers’ “legitimate concerns to be addressed, for alternatives to be explored, and for a full consideration of what is best for the current school community as well for those who are seeking a Gaelcholáiste in the area”.
However, the ERST said that under the articles of management for Catholic secondary schools, the board of Synge Street CBS is responsible for “the conduct, management and financial administration of the school”.
As such, the trust said it was the board, as the staff’s employer, that had responsibility for consulting with staff and the wider school community on change of status and other issues.
The trust said it has met Synge Street CBS’s staff on several occasions and acknowledged that they feel disappointed with and disrespected by the lack of consultation in the change of status process, as well as the speed around which it has taken place.
“In response to this and to give staff more time to adjust to and prepare for the change of status, ERST has got the agreement of the Department of Education to give the school the option of having another intake of students taught through English in September 2026. That would mean that it would be September 2032 before the school would become lán Gaeilge.”
