The Teachers’ Union of Ireland is recommending that its members accept new proposals aimed at supporting the rollout of Senior Cycle reform following detailed negotiations with the Department of Education.

Policy makers have suggested that instead of students sitting multiple papers, grades should instead be decided by one written exam and one project per subject.

This had previously raised concerns with educators about the use of AI.

However, Teacher’s Union of Ireland (TUI) president David Waters told Newstalk Breakfast that after “intense negotiations”, many member’s concerns have now been addressed.

“The new minimum 40% assessment components, they will be reviewed for their viability, there’ll be time audits to see if it’s actually possible to do this kind of course work,” he said.

“For teachers as well, to address certain issues, there’ll now be one-year CIDs, or contract of indefinite durations, to address teacher supply in classrooms.

“The local bargaining element of the public service agreement will be sorted and the infamous Croke Park hours will be rebalanced as well.”

File photo of a primary school teacher marking work in a classroom. Picture by: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Mr Water said that an agreed three per cent pay increase is also a “recognition of the workload that’s going to have to be done”, as teachers will have to develop new resources and get familiar with new specifications and methodologies.

However, he stressed that an increase in pay was not the sole motivator behind the Union’s acceptance of the changes.

According to Mr Water, everything the TUI has done up to this point was "always to do with the students”.

Main image: Student's doing their Leaving Cert. Image: Leon Farrell/RollingNews.ie