More than 4,500 people have applied to participate in a national convention on education that is due to take place later this year.
The convention will sit over the course of four weekends this year and its outcome is intended to inform future state education policy.
The 4,500 plus applicants are vying for 90 seats that will be allocated to school students, parents and staff.
Department of Education officials have expressed surprise at the high level of interest.
Expressions of interest are still being accepted. They can be made via gov.ie/educationconvention, with the closing date this Friday, 16 January.
Thirty places have been reserved for young people between the ages of eight and 24. A further 30 places will be allocated to parents, and school staff also have 30 places.
60 seats have been reserved for representatives from a variety of education bodies.
Parent, child and staff participants will be chosen via a process that will take into account a variety of factors, such as gender, geographical location, school sector, ethnicity and age.
The convention, which will be chaired by Professor Anne Looney, will discuss key issues about the future of education with the aim of helping to shape the country's education system for the coming decades.
In a process designed to feed into the establishment of the convention, the Department of Education and Youth opened an online survey to allow a broader range of people to submit their thoughts and ideas on the education system.
Among a range of questions, the survey asks people to outline which parts of the education system they think are working well and what kinds of barriers and changes they see.
The department said the survey was a once-in-a-generation opportunity for children, young people, parents, educators and wider society to help shape Ireland's education system for decades to come.
The survey can be accessed at National Conversation Survey.
Related school community and regional events will also take place across the country in coming weeks.
A separate survey from the Department of Children, Disability and Equality will be launched next month and will inform a new action plan to build an affordable, accessible and high quality early learning and care system.
Minister for Education and Youth Hildegard Naughton said: "For generations, our education system has served the people of Ireland well.
"Our people have achieved enormous success at home and abroad in business, academia, the arts, the sciences, in sport and in all other areas of human endeavour.
"The challenge our education system faces is how to equip the young people of today with the necessary skills to help them thrive and adapt in an ever-changing world, where AI is a reality and where all aspects of daily life including leisure, study and work are continuously changing.
"That leads to profound questions we must address and seek to answer."
