The on-going dispute between ASTI and the Department of Education is set to continue for a second day with over 500 secondary schools shut across the country.
A number of other proposed strikes are planned and the dispute centres on the refusal of ASTI members to cover break times, absent colleagues and free periods.
A separate row also broke out yesterday, which forced additional schools to take strike action after a dispute over substitution and supervision pay.
On the first day of the strike over equal pay for newly qualified staff, in the Thursday before the Halloween mid-term, 507 schools out of 735 closed.
The walkouts are planned to run on five other days this month before culminating in a two-day shutdown of schools on December 6 and 7.
However, many teachers claimed they were locked out of their schools, and that they were ready to teach.
Sinéad Farrell, an English and special needs teacher at Coláiste Choilm boys school in Swords, Co Dublin, said teachers were “disheartened” having turned up to teach.
Sinead told The Irish Independent, “We’re ready to work and the gates aren’t open, so it’s essentially a lock-out,” she said.
“Teachers don’t want to be standing outside their school with a lock on their gate, but this is what we are reduced to now, this is what we have to do.”
Her colleague Joan Parsons – an English and religion teacher – said: “We’d all rather be inside.
“Every single one of us would rather be in school than standing out here.”
At Loreto College in Dublin, Deirdre Scully, who teaches English and drama, said her colleagues were “very unhappy” at the situation.
