If students were busy last week doing frantic last-minute revision for the exams, teachers have also been fully stretched. Many schools contacted by The Irish Times last week reported how many teachers are offering extra classes and tuition to make up any ground lost during the ASTI dispute.

Teachers were doing this work without any additional pay - and without complaint. (Last month, ASTI members rejected a Labour Court package which would have given them £1,750 for making up lost time.)

Commenting on the phenomenon one principal said: "There is a determination to tidy up any loose ends. Teachers would hate to think that they have in any way short-changed their students. They want to do their absolute best for each and every kid."

There is some ground to be made up. Most secondary schools lost an average of 13 days this year because of ASTI's industrial action. The threat to the exams lingered through the winter months and into the spring. It was only finally removed as Leaving and Junior Cert students began the final countdown for their exams.

While pupils have suffered, teachers have also felt the pain, according to one teacher. "People forget that the whole business of closing schools and threatening exams is unnatural for the average teacher.

"Teachers want to be in the classroom preparing kids for exams. It goes against the grain to do anything which could damage students."

It is difficult to assess the damage done to students by the disruption. For good, conscientious students the damage was probably minimal. These students are well capable of working on their own initiative. Once they are pointed in the right direction by the teacher, they need little help.

One south Dublin teacher, who made herself available for extra classes, found little response from her honours English Leaving Cert class.

"At this stage, these students are entirely focused on the areas they want to cover. They don't want more tuition.

"In my view, the ASTI dispute had only a very marginal impact on these students. The impact has been exaggerated on the radio and in the papers."

A teacher in a midlands secondary school takes a different view: "The ASTI dispute hit those kids who are most vulnerable. The less able student who needs the class contact time, the poorer student who cannot afford to take grinds - these students have suffered.

"It is very difficult to say how much. But they have lost out."

Despite these fears - and the winter of discontent in the staffroom - the most striking feature of the Leaving Cert 2001 is that it seems much like any other year.

In the classroom teachers report that the wry comments and jokes from students about the ASTI dispute have suddenly vanished.

The focus for the past two months in Leaving Cert classes appears to have been concentrated on the exams. "Most teachers have long since finished the course, the focus is "on revision, on past exams papers, and on more revision," says one teacher.

Looking back over the year, it is difficult to assess whether long-term damage has been done to relations between students and teachers.

One vastly experienced secondary teachers says the academic year 2000-2001 will come to represent a watershed in Irish education. "It was the year when students realised their potential power. I never envisaged I would see a day when teachers were actually afraid to stand on a picket line for fear of attack by students. The whole sense of mutual respect has been broken."

Other teachers are less certain of this. "The student protests were the work of a small minority of students, who would in any case be among the most troublesome in school. For the vast majority of students and teachers nothing has changed."

Another Cork teacher commented: "The relationship between the average Irish secondary teacher and his/her pupils is a strong as ever. The memory of all the ASTI action has already begun to fade.

"Most students appreciate the dedicated work of their teachers. Most have great time for their teachers.

"No long-term damage has been done."