The promised national convention on education will begin with a plenary session to be held in mid-November, Minister for Education and Youth Helen McEntee has confirmed.
While the exact date and format has not been finalised the minister said the first session would bring together representatives from "four key priority areas".
They are teachers and educators, students, parents, and other stakeholders such as businesses.
She said the plenary session would "help set a direction" for the convention.
Budget 2026 has allocated €2 million to the convention, which was promised as part of the Programme for Government. The aim is that it will have concluded with findings ready for early 2027.
'Unique opportunity' - McEntee
Addressing the annual conference of Education and Training Boards Ireland (ETBI) in Cavan, Minister McEntee said she hoped the convention "will provide a unique opportunity for children, young people, parents, educators and wider society to help shape the future of our education system".
It will focus mainly on primary and post-primary education but will also include the transitions children make from early childhood education to primary and from post-primary to further and higher education.
The Department of Education said the work of the convention will inform a new long-term strategy for education here.
The last convention of this kind was held more than 30 years ago.
Helen McEntee said: "I am committed to ensuring that the convention will reflect the Ireland of today, in all its diversity, and in particular the voices of children and young people, their parents and guardians, and of course the education stakeholders."
"We have a strong tradition of collaboration and consultation in education, and this will also underpin the workings of the convention," she said.
In a session discussing the future of education, family psychotherapist Dr Richard Hogan told delegates that if he had one message for policy makers and the upcoming convention "it would be a blanket ban of smart phones across our schools".
Smart phones in schools criticised
He blamed smart phones for what he called "the silencing of adolescence".
"We are witnessing the death of small talk among our young people, and the accompanying social skills they need to thrive", he said.
Ireland's sixteen Education and Training Boards are the second largest provider of post primary education here after the Catholic Church, running 250 state mostly multi-denominational second level schools.
At primary level the ETBs are also patrons of 30 Community National Schools. The sector is also involved in delivering further education and training.
