Senior Cycle Supports Announced (With Conditions)

The Department of Education and Youth has published a document (Senior Cycle Redevelopment Implementation Support Measures) outline the measures being introduced to support the implementation of Senior Cycle Redevelopment (SCR) in Irish schools, commencing from September 2025. The measures follow a series of meetings with the teaching unions and one meeting with the ISTA (a second meeting was promised but not delivered on). Here’s an overview of the main supports being introduced, with a focus on measures for science teachers and the new science curricula.

• Permanent Contracts: Revised arrangements will allow teachers taking up their first contract from September 2025 to become eligible for a permanent contract after one year, subject to successful reappointment.

• Workload and Professional Capacity: Additional posts of responsibility will be created to support SCR implementation, and a dedicated working group will address workload concerns. There will also be targeted additional teacher allocations to facilitate expanded subject choice and Transition Year participation.

• Professional Learning: Oide, the national teacher professional learning service, will deliver a four-year programme of professional learning for all teachers involved in the first tranche of new and revised subjects. This includes in-person and online events, workshops, and access to sample assessment materials well in advance of classroom implementation. This is well underway on the science subjects.

• Assessment and Curriculum Materials: Sample examination papers and guidelines for Additional Assessment Components (AACs) will be published ahead of time, ensuring teachers and students are well prepared for new assessment formats. In the case of science, this material is already available although no sample answers were provided.

• Early rapid reviews: Ongoing feedback mechanisms will ensure that subject specifications remain relevant and manageable. Despite this promise, the ISTA members sitting on the NCCA’s Subject Development Groups were informed on Friday that those groups are now disbanded; who will carry out these reviews now is unknown.

• Digital and Laboratory Facilities: The Department is promising additional investment in digital infrastructure and science laboratories, with schools able to apply for funding through the summer works scheme to upgrade lab facilities. The ISTA don’t think this is the appropriate mechanism for funding such projects.

• AI Task Force: A task force is being set up to investigation the ethical and effective use of artificial intelligence in teaching and assessment. This is a departure for the former Minister’s earlier commitment for comprehensive guidelines on AI, which were made on May 27th 2024.

• 3% Pay Increase: Under the recent public service pay agreement, a 3% bargaining clause was included. The Department of Education are now stipulating that not agreeing to the reform measures will result in this pay increase not being applied. They are also threatening the other 2% pay increase in that pay agreement may also be removed, which we don’t think it legal.
• Additional Assessment Components: That pay increase is linked to a clause in the document which effectively means teachers must comply with the facilitation, authentication and submission of the Additional Assessment Components, and any additional work (preparation, set up etc). The clause also stipulates oral examinations will remain in holiday periods.

Science education is a particular focus of the Senior Cycle reforms. The Department has introduced a Science Implementation Support Grant, providing all schools in the free scheme with between €13,000 and €22,000 (with a 10% increase for DEIS schools) to support the rollout of revised Senior Cycle science subjects. Schools have flexibility in how this funding is used, but are expected to prioritise consumables and equipment needed for the new science specifications.

From September 2025, the longstanding Physics and Chemistry grant will be extended to include Biology and Agricultural Science, and the per-student grant amount will increase to €25. This funding boost is designed to ensure all science subjects are equally resourced and that practical work can be fully supported.

ISTA Response

The ISTA Council met last Friday and discussed the Department’s document. The document contained many measures which had already been announced, including the implementation support grant for sciences. Many of the measures have little to do with SCR. including the expansion of permanent contracts or increases to teacher salaries negotiated recently. It is extraordinary to see teacher pay and conditions included in a document designed to outline the various support measures for Senior Cycle reform; it is not appropriate nor should support measures be linked to teacher compliance. If they want Senior Cycle reform to be successful, then they need to support it fully and unconditionally. It is also strange to see the document appear three years after such reform was introduced.

The measures do little to address the ISTA’s concerns, which were shared directly with Department officials back in April where we proposed a pause on Additional Assessment Components (AACs). We were very disappointed that the document didn’t provide any clarity on AI’s impact on the AACs (a task force will be set up after September 2025, over 15 months after Minister Norma Foley promised detailed guidelines). Nor did it provide clarity on the authentication of work and the burden of responsibility on teachers in this regard. The document does not mention updating the Department of Education’s Safety in School Science guidelines, which were written in 1996, to bring them in line with current best-practice or provide guidance on supporting students in extended experimental investigations. There now appears to be a significant laboratory safely vacuum for Irish teachers with no dedicated up to date guidance in this area. Most significantly, the document does not provide any clarity on how the assessments will provide “excellence and equity for all” when there are serious concerns over the new assessments providing an advantage to students in fee paying schools. The Summer Works Scheme is not fit for the purpose of laboratory refurbishment.

These are just the initial thoughts of the ISTA Council. A working group will assembly after term finishes to discuss the document carefully and thoroughly and to issue a formal response to the Department of Education. The ASTI have announced that they will ballot members on the proposed measures while the TUI are supporting them. It is very disappointing that Department of Education support measures, seemingly obvious additions to any reform plan, can be used as a negotiation tool with teacher unions; one might assume that support measures are introduced with or without the support of teachers in a reform process. Without these measures (well the few aimed directly at resourcing schools), there will be a significant impact on the students’ experience of SCR and ultimately destine it for failure. The Department of Education are ill-prepared for Senior Cycle Reform, and they know it, but they are happy to push it through into our schools with little concern for its success.