Seán Crowe
Question:378 Mr. Crowe asked the Minister for Education and Science if he intends devising a programme of work which will address the problem of student indiscipline in schools. [11531/04]
View answerTuesday, 27 April 2004
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Written answers
My Department has issued guidelines to boards of management to assist them in discharging their obligations in the area of school discipline. These guidelines were drawn up following consultation with representatives of management, teachers and parents, and are sufficiently flexible to allow each school authority to adapt them to suit the needs of the school. These guidelines lay considerable stress on the use of suspensions and expulsions only as a last resort.
Each board of management is responsible for formulating, in consultation with parents, a fair and efficient code of behaviour. This code should ensure that the individuality of each child is accommodated while acknowledging the right of each child to education in a relatively disruption-free environment. The code should also include provision for dealing with serious breaches of discipline and continuously disruptive pupils. Social attitudes and parental approaches to discipline vary from one school community to another, and it would be inappropriate for me as Minister to set out a formal and detailed code of behaviour for all schools.