Leaving and Junior Certificate oral exams face serious disruption after yesterday's decision by the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland to resume its strike action next week.
ASTI general secretary, Mr Charlie Lennon, said it was now virtually impossible for the exams to go ahead. He said thousands of ASTI secondary school teachers were involved in the exams and if they were not involved it would be very difficult.
Mr Lennon said the only way to end the dispute was through direct talks with the Government. The National Parents Council met with the Minister for Education, Dr Michael Woods, earlier today and were assured the exams would be properly supervised and corrected.
Dr Woods said a contingency plan had been put in place and although the Oral examinations - due to start on March 26th - may have to be rescheduled, they would go ahead.
Yesterday, the ASTI's 180-member Central Executive Committee voted by 151 votes to 10 to reject Labour Court proposals aimed at resolving the dispute over a 30 pay claim.
ASTI president Mr Don McCluskey said: "For well over a year now, we have almost been completely ignored by the Government.
"We have tried everything at our disposal to get talks and it was only in the last while that talks have been initiated.
While the Labour Court recommendation said it recognised that teachers have a "sustainable case" for a pay rise, it said it could not accept the union's argument that it is unique and benchmarking could not deal with its claim.
A nationwide strike is scheduled to begin next Wednesday with five more walkouts planned over the next three weeks.
The dates for strike action are:
March 14th
March 22th
March 23th
March 27th
March 28th
March 29th