School teachers could be facing cuts in the amount of uncertified sick leave they can claim after the education minister Batt O'Keeffe indicated their current entitlements of up to one month per year should be reviewed.

In a move likely to provoke criticism from teachers as they prepare to hold their annual conferences this week, a spokesman for O'Keeffe said he believed the possibility of decreasing the number of uncertified sick leave days should be examined as part of an ongoing wider review.

Under current rules, primary teachers can take a maximum of 31 sick days in a school year, while teachers in secondary and community/comprehensive schools can take up to 30 days a year.

The primary school term is just 183 days a year while secondary teachers teach for a minimum of 167 days. This means that, in theory, teachers are entitled to take over 15% of their total working days as uncertified sick days, although this is not common practice.

These uncertified sick rates are far higher than those available to their counterparts working in traditionally high-risk jobs such as the prison service, An Garda Síochána and the defence forces.

In VEC schools, the maximum allowed is seven days.

"The debate around uncertified sick leave is part of an ongoing review of general substitution arrangements in schools which is being conducted at the moment in close consultation with the teaching unions and management bodies by Department of Education and Science officials," O'Keeffe's spokesman told the Sunday Tribune. "The minister feels that this is an issue which merits examination in this context.

"Entitlements to uncertified sick leave are higher for teachers... than in many areas of the public sector. However, the evidence we have is that the incidence of uncertified sick leave among teachers is not high relative to other sectors."

According to Department of Education statistics, more than 1,000 primary and second level teachers took 10 or more days' sick leave without a doctor's certificate last year. But just 179 took 15 days or more.

Last November, O'Keeffe revealed the teacher substitution regime was costing more than €180m per year, with more than 12,000 uncertified substitution days on Mondays and Fridays.

This prompted a furious reaction at the time from teacher unions such as the INTO, which commences its annual conference in Donegal this week.

Its general secretary John Carr said that at 59,992, the total number of uncertified sick leave days worked out at about one per teacher per year.

The current issue of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) magazine ASTIR says: "A medical certificate of illness is required if a teacher on department salary is absent for more than four consecutive school days."

It adds: "A teacher who is absent only on a Thursday and Friday, and the following Monday and Tuesday, does not require a certificate."

The ASTI annual conference takes place in Kerry this week.