The Department of Education is pressing ahead with its contingency plan to hold this year's Leaving and Junior Cert examinations without the co-operation of the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland. This is in case the forthcoming union ballot fails to endorse the latest Labour Court proposals.
While remaining "very hopeful" that the outcome of the ballot would be positive, the Minister for Education, Dr Woods, said yesterday he was "obliged to keep the Department's contingency plan in place on a precautionary basis". He would be "keeping under review whether or not any elements of it needed to be activated".
The strike by secondary teachers and the threat to disrupt the State exams have been put on hold until ASTI members have balloted on the Labour Court proposals.
The ballot would probably be held between April 17th and 19th, a spokeswoman for the ASTI said, and the result would not be known before the first week in May.
This is after the union's annual conference in Easter week, to be held between April 17th and 19th.
While there is concern at Government level that hardline elements within the union may attempt to persuade the conference to reject the peace plan, the Department is relatively confident that the ASTI decision to "suspend non-co-operation" on examinations will not be rescinded.
Yesterday the Minister said the Junior and Leaving Cert oral and practical examinations would operate as normal in the two-week period beginning on April 23rd. "I have instructed my Department to proceed immediately to put everything in place to complete oral and practical examinations as efficiently as possible," he said.
The practical and performance tests in Music and Home Economics that were deferred are also being rescheduled for this two-week period. ASTI sources confirmed there were no plans to jeopardise the oral and practical examinations. The ASTI general secretary, Mr Charlie Lennon, has indicated that refusal to co-operate would not automatically resume if the Labour Court proposals were rejected. However, the ASTI spokeswoman said this did not mean that non-co-operation in the supervising and marking was ruled out.
There have been some 10,500 applications from would-be supervisors for the State exams, the Department confirmed, for about 5,500 posts.
The Department would not say, however, what contingency plans were in place to fill the vital examiner role if ASTI members refuse to mark the exams.