Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 May 2004
54 Ms Lynch asked the Minister for Education and Science his plans to address growing indiscipline problems in schools; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that a recent ASTI survey showed that 54% of respondents had experienced verbal abuse from students and a third of teachers had experience of parents refusing to co-operate in the implementation of sanctions on students; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14364/04]
View answerI am aware of the survey, conducted by the ASTI, referred to by the Deputy. It is important that while acknowledging that student discipline is an issue in schools we do not talk this up to being a crisis. It is undoubtedly the case that a small proportion of students cause serious problems in schools. The reasons for this are not simple and are societal as much as educational. That said, I do not think that today's generation of young people is more disruptive than their predecessors. The reality is that as we have progressively increased the retention rate in our formal education system we are retaining students who in the past would have dropped out of school early. This poses challenges for schools and for society. There are no simple answers or magic wands available here.
A school's code of discipline and the inclusive way in which it is framed is important, particularly in harnessing student and parental support. We also have to look at whether the formal school model best meets the needs of all students and whether other models need to be developed. As against this we have to be careful not to promote the exclusion of problem students as this will leave us with a greater problem down the road.
