Over seven hundred secondary schools around the country are closed today - due to a strike over Junior Cert reform plans.

Around 27 thousand teachers are taking part in the action - over a proposal to have teachers assess their own students.

The Education Minister Jan o'Sullivan says the strike is unnecessary and disproportionate.

She spoke to reporters on her way into the weekly cabinet meeting at Government Buildings 

These teachers on the picket line at Ard Scoil Mhuire in Corbally in Limerick say the internal assessment plan must be scrapped... 

Fergal O'Brien has spent the morning on the picket line i with teachers at  St Mary's Secondary School in Glasnevin in Dublin. He filed this report.