Primary school teachers to ballot for industrial action

Primary school teachers are to ballot for industrial action as part of a dispute over a continued ban on promotion in schools and increasing workloads for teachers.

The ballot will ask teachers to stop all involvement in school self-evaluation.

The Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) general secretary Sheila Nunan said the ban on promotions, which was introduced eight years ago following the collapse in the public finances, was "intolerable".

She said it was having a severe impact and compromising the running of schools.

The INTO said the Department of Education had plans “to increase requirements for schools in the self-evaluation of teaching and learning and to introduce self-evaluation of leadership and management in schools”.

The union said the ban on promotion was severely limiting the capacity of an increasing number of schools to function effectively.