Half days called to facilitate parent-teacher meetings during work-to-rule

PARENT-TEACHER MEETINGS ARE set to be disrupted by the ongoing pay dispute impasse between teachers’ unions and the government.

The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO), which represents over 50,000 teachers at primary level, has said staff should not attend formal parent-teacher meetings outside of school hours from 16 November, ramping up a previous request to members in early October to refrain from attending such meetings.

The Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI), which represents 23,000 workers across post-primary, further and higher education, also said it will direct members not to conduct meetings with parents outside school hours from 16 November.

Teachers have been engaged in a work-to-rule, whereby they only carry out the minimum requirements of their contracts, since 5 October.

Annual parent-teacher meetings typically take place in November after the October mid-term break.

A senior source in education said that due to work-to-rule, some schools have rescheduled the meetings for within school hours, necessitating half-days for students in some cases.

Other schools have adopted a ‘wait and see’ approach in deciding what to do about parent-teacher meetings.

Another senior source in education said parent-teacher meetings are being cancelled or moved to within school hours with half days called.

This source said that the meetings will not be postponed to another time as this would go against work-to-rule.

Ireland’s main second-level teachers union, the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI), has also said further escalation of industrial action will be considered over the coming week “with a view to escalating further on Monday, 16 November 2026″.

A spokesperson for the ASTI said: “Parent-teacher meetings are very valuable and parent-teacher meetings during school hours can continue.”

“However, in the context of a public service wide industrial action campaign, the ASTI has sought to prioritise teaching and learning for students in so far as is possible.”

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Escalation

Unions representing public sector workers announced on Monday that they are planning another 24-hour strike for next Thursday, after an impasse in talks with the government, which concluded late on Friday night.

Members of public service unions are to participate in mass rallies at eight locations around the country from 12pm on 12 November, in a strike which is to coincide with the European Political Community Summit in Dublin.

Siobhán O’Neill White, a mother of four and founder of online parenting community mams.ie, told The Journal that although the industrial action in schools is causing some disruption, she feels parents are mostly supportive of teachers.

“It’s causing some inconvenience, but most parents I’ve spoken with strongly support the teachers’ right to better pay,” she said.

“So far, we haven’t been affected too much. I had to rearrange work for the first strike day and if the second strike day goes ahead next week we’ll have to rejig some things around then.”

She believes that if parent-teacher meetings don’t go ahead due to industrial action, most teachers will offer to communicate with parents via phone or email.

O’Neill White said that in her opinion, remote parent-teacher meetings are more efficient than hours-long face-to-face meetings anyway.

However, a Dublin-based mother of primary school children told The Journal that next week will be “another headache” for her and her husband, who both work full-time.

“I absolutely have sympathy for teachers and school staff having to go on strike and deal with this work-to-rule. They are the backbone of communities in this country and they deserve to be treated better. I can only imagine how disruptive it is for them,” she said. 

“However, as a parent, it’s so frustrating with all the upheaval. It genuinely feels like my kids are never in school, and we cannot get a clear run at a full week.”

The mother said that lately it feels like “there’s always something”, such as a bank holiday or a training day that interrupts a full week of school.

“The juggle is relentless; it means taking hours off work, no childcare, relying on relatives. We’ll have to see what we’ll do next week,” she added.

She said she is most annoyed at the government, and called on them to “get their priorities straight” and engage in a meaningful way with public sector unions to resolve the pay dispute.