AN IRELAND AM viewer has accused Tommy Bowe of "hating teachers" after he weighed in on the Leaving Cert reform. The final set of exams in secondary school - the grades of which determine a place in third level education - have come under fire for years and talks began recently between the Teacher's Union of Ireland and the Department of Education on reform of the senior cycle. The changes that have been put forward would see a move away from the one final exam system that's currently in place. Instead, students would be graded on continuous assessment across a period of time. The completed portfolio would then count for 40 per cent of the final grade. The proposed reforms are set to come in stages, with students going into fifth year in 2025 being the first to experience the new system. Tommy, Muireann O'Connell and Alan Hughes spoke about the dilemma on the hit breakfast show this morning. Both TUI and The Association of Secondary -Teachers of Ireland have argued that the changes are being introduced too quickly and are concerned that there won't be proper resources or staff training in place by the time the changes come into effect. Speaking about this, the former rugby star said: "The minister has spoken that there will be more training in September." With a grin on his face, Tommy added: "But these teachers are just coming from a two-week break holiday and will be going on a three-month holiday so trying to squeeze training in can't be easy either." Later on in the show, the three hosts sat down to read out some of their viewers opinion on the matter. Alan read out one message that said: "I can't get my head around why Tommy hates teachers so much. "Like in any job, there are those that are slackers but the majority work really hard. He should maybe find out a little more about what's involved in teaching today that's not from what he remembers." Tommy looked surprised and replied: "There you go Catherine. I don't hate teachers, far from it. My kids' teachers are fantastic." He jokingly added: "Now, teachers didn't really like me growing up." Alan quickly remarked: "And you've just been holding it against them since." 'FOR WHAT?' Tommy replied: "No but, we can see some of the frustration. The Leaving Cert has been talked about for donkeys about reforms coming in and I can understand the concerns about the teachers wanting to be trained up so they can to do the job to their best ability." Before he could get his point across, Muireann cut across him saying: "But it's like anything, if you try to do the reforms too quickly and do them badly, that's to the detriment of the students. "I know that they're asking for a 12 month pause on it." Tommy shouted out: "For what?" Muireann replied: "To train people up and I get it, rote learning is no good for anyone. I totally understand that." Tommy replied: "I understand how maybe 40 per cent is probably too much too quickly, why not just make it 20 per cent." The dad-of-two ended the segment by reiterating that he doesn't "hate teachers".