Talks aimed at resolving the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland’s dispute are expected to conclude this week.
The dispute led to the closure of hundreds of schools earlier this month and last.
The ASTI, as well as two other teacher unions, have been involved in talks under the Teachers' Conciliation Council for the past almost three weeks.
The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation and the Teachers Union of Ireland have been involved because any deal that is struck will affect all teachers, not just ASTI members.
Both the INTO and the TUI are party to the latest collective pay deal, the Lansdowne Road Agreement, but the ASTI is not.
ASTI members embarked on a series of one-day strikes in pursuit of equal pay scales for more recently qualified teachers.
They also withdrew from the supervision of students outside of their scheduled class times.
This last action threatened to close hundreds of schools indefinitely due to health and safety concerns.
Both these actions were suspended for the duration of the current talks.
The ASTI has also been refusing to co-operate with the classroom based assessment of students under the new Junior Cycle programme.
The second of two classroom based assessments in the subject of English is due to take place next week.
It is likely that any revised deal that is offered to teachers will have to be balloted upon by ASTI members.
Students with ASTI teachers are currently not being offered the classroom based assessment component, which is worth 10% of their overall Junior Certificate English mark.
Students with teachers who are not in the ASTI are doing the assessments.
