The Minister for Education says it's not too late to avoid a national strike of secondary school teachers tomorrow.
But Jan O'Sullivan says it's up to teachers to make the first move and agree to go back to talks about the proposals for overhauling the Junior Cert.
But the unions organising the strike say the Minister must first scrap her demands for teachers to grade their own pupils in the Junior Cert exams.
The teachers are refusing to adopt any system which will require them to grade some of their own pupils' work for the Junior Cert state exams - saying there's no such thing as "partial integrity".
It appears neither side is willing to back down - and although all are willing to enter talks, none are likely to instigate any progress before tomorrow's school closures.
Our political correspondent Gavan Reilly filed this report for Today FM's National Lunchtime News:
