Paying teachers for supervision duties is expected to be discussed during talks tomorrow aimed at resolving the five month old ASTI dispute.
The talks at the Labour Court will involve re-visiting the original Labour Court recommendation which said supervision was worth examining.
At present, teachers provide this service on a voluntary basis but the talks are expected to focus on paying them an annual allowance for the work. So far, the speculation is that they could get between £2,000 and £3,000 a year.
The Labour Court's recommendation said it was not clear whether supervision was part of a teacher's contract. It said this confusion should be cleared up.
The other issue likely to be explored in the talks is shortening the teacher's pay scale which all teacher unions claim is too long.
The Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland (ASTI) has declined to suspend its strike action which is due to resume for three days on Tuesday. It says if the talks are making progress it might consider a suspension.
The Government is particularly anxious to get a suspension because next week is one of the longest consecutive periods of school closures since the dispute began.
The ugly scenes at students' protests yesterday are likely to make efforts to solve the dispute more intensive. The Labour Party spokeswoman on education, Ms Roisin Shortall, appealed to the Government and the ASTI to "ensure the opportunity presented by the new Labour Court negotiations is not lost".
The Government is determined to preserve the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness (PPF) in the talks, but paying a supervision allowance would not necessarily compromise the pay deal.
This is because supervision is peculiar to teaching, so paying them for it might not anger other trade unions who have observed PPF. Any supervision allowance would be paid to secondary and primary teachers.
The supervision idea is not supported by all teachers. Many of them would rather see a pay rise directly linked to basic salary which would also have an effect on pensions.
The ASTI is currently observing a "media blackout" but its four negotiators are hoping for some "elaboration" or "development" on the original Labour Court recommendation, at the talks which begin at 10.30 a.m.
The Government side is expected to point out to the ASTI that the Labour Court recommendation agreed teachers had a "sustainable case" for a pay rise. But it should be processed through the benchmarking body.
The ASTI is still adamantly opposed to this.
Meanwhile, the Joint Managerial Body - which represents the majority of school managers - said both sides should make a "gesture" to solve the dispute. The general secretary, Mr George O'Callaghan, said: "We welcome the decision of the ASTI to go back to the Labour Court to seek clarification of its recommendations. We would urge both sides to approach this process with a view to progressing a resolution of the dispute".