Officials running the Junior and Leaving Cert have issued an urgent appeal for extra manpower to correct exam papers.
The State Examinations Commission says it's short-staffed for seven different Leaving Cert subjects.
But the crunch is even worse for the Junior Cert, where they need more correctors for almost every exam.
ASTI deputy general secretary Diarmuid de Paor says the pay just isn't up to scratch.
He believes "this is a crisis, there is a crisis in the recruitment of teachers and there's a crisis in the recruitment of examiners - and they have to be addressed sooner rather than later."
Mr de Paor believes it needs to be fixed or "it will have profound implocations for the education system and the State Examinations Commission, which to be fair to it, is something people don't generally criticise."
