Members of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) have voted by a margin of 73% to 27% to accept the negotiated implementation measures for Senior Cycle redevelopment.
The Union’s Executive Committee had recommended acceptance, stating that it believed the measures were the best that could be achieved through negotiation.
The TUI has made clear at all times that the ballot was on the acceptability of the implementation measures and not the actual curriculum, which the Minister has the power to prescribe under the Education Act and which other stakeholders have no veto over.
Speaking this evening, TUI President David Waters said:
‘Our members have assessed the negotiated implementation measures for Senior Cycle implementation and voted to accept them. However, it is clear that they still have a range of concerns around various issues related to the redevelopment process, and we will be insisting that the Department honours the commitments set out in the negotiated document.’
‘We have specific concerns about the system capacity for the roll-out of the Science subjects in schools that have been chronically under-resourced, the potential risks to assessment posed by AI and the additional resourcing required to ensure that no students, particularly those in DEIS settings, are put at a disadvantage by any of the changes. It is now imperative that these and any other arising issues are urgently addressed.’
Earlier this week, the TUI welcomed reports of a delay in in the implementation of the revised Tranche 2 subjects of English and Accounting until September 2027.
The union had called for a delay in the implementation of Tranche 2 subjects in its submission to the Department of Education ahead of the recent negotiations that led to the publication of the Senior Cycle Implementation Measures document. The original timeline for implementation was accelerated by the previous Minister for Education in September 2023.
In terms of the potential for further delays in implementation of new curricula, the Senior Cycle Implementation Measures document states that ‘the Department will continue to engage regularly with the NCCA on the delivery timelines of Tranches 2-5 and, where considered appropriate and necessary for development and/or implementation reasons, the implementation of individual subjects may be delayed from the current published schedule.’
The union once again drew attention to Ireland’s shamefully low level of investment in education, which sees us spend a lower percentage of national wealth on education than any other listed OECD country. The education budget for 2026 will need to increase significantly to properly facilitate such significant change, the union said.