Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn is inviting teacher unions to talks on Junior Cycle reforms as progress on the planned introduction of continuous assessment in secondary schools remains stalled.

Mr Quinn is today issuing the invitation to the ASTI and TUI, the two secondary teacher unions which have withdrawn co-operation from the plan.

In deference to pupils sitting the Leaving and Junior Certs next week, the talks are not due to take place until the State exams.

The Minister is planning to chair the talks himself in an indication of his desire to break the logjam but remains firmly committed to abolishing the state examination in the Junior Cycle, and to replace it with in-school assessments.

The new Junior Cycle framework is due to be introduced on a phased basis from September.

A working group involving stakeholders on what will be known as the Junior Cycle Student Award (JCSA) met today, reporting that little progress has been made on implementation since the two teacher unions voted to withdraw cooperation.

The ASTI separately handed into the Minister today a petition signed by almost 10,000 teachers objecting to the plan.