The first "gender-balanced" election in the State is set to take place in November when 50,000 teachers vote for members of the new Teaching Council.
In a radical departure, teachers must vote for a female candidate and for a male candidate to fill vacancies on the new council, which will oversee standards in the profession.
Teaching unions were briefed on the new procedures by Department of Education officials late last week. A spokesperson for the Department said the Minister for Education and Science, Mr Dempsey, was determined to take a leading role in pushing the equality agenda.
All registered teachers will be entitled to vote but they must select a candidate of their choice from the male panel of candidates and another from the female panel. The voting will take place under the traditional proportional representation system.
Department of Education sources say the new-style election will also be used in the forthcoming contest for seats on vocational education committees. One source said: "This is the kind of thing we have to do if we are serious about promoting gender balance".
The new council will be broadly similar to the Medical Council as it will supervise and monitor standards in the profession. It will examine the fitness of teachers to teach and, if appropriate, may impose sanctions up to and including deregistration.
According to 2002 statistics, women were greatly outnumbered by men on the board of virtually every research and State body. Only the National Museum and the National Statistics Board had equal or near equal numbers of both sexes.
Some 37 members will sit on the new Teaching Council. Of these, 22 will be directly elected by teachers in four constituencies: Dublin, Leinster, Munster and Connacht-Ulster.
Under the system, there are, for example, nine seats available to primary teachers. In Leinster, Munster and Connacht-Ulster, teachers will vote from a male and female panel. But in Dublin, where an extra seat is available, they will be posted three ballot papers; one for the male candidate of their choice, one for their preferred female candidate, and one from a joint panel of male and female candidates.
All teachers will be obliged to register with the council. This should see an end to the practice of using unqualified teachers, especially in primary schools. The INTO general secretary, Mr John Carr, has also been a long-time advocate of the new Teaching Council.
The new format is designed to promote greater equality for women. Ironically, men are very much an endangered species in primary teaching, where about 80 per cent of staff are female.
The new Teaching Council is expected to be established by the end of the year.
Its first chairwoman is Ms Áine Lawlor, a former primary school principal.