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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 2 May 2001

Vol. 535 No. 2

Written Answers - School Discipline.

Dick Spring

Ceist:

97 Mr. Spring asked the Minister for Education and Science the strategy in place to deal with the growing problem of indiscipline in schools; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12373/01]

Ivor Callely

Ceist:

119 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Education and Science if he is satisfied that there is uniformity in the way schools approach the issue of discipline generally; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11641/01]

I propose to take Questions Nos. 97 and 119 together.

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. This code should include provision for dealing with serious breaches of discipline and continuously disruptive pupils.

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 particular needs of the school. These guidelines lay considerable stress on the use of suspensions and expulsions only as a last resort.

The report on discipline, commissioned by my Department and completed by Dr. Maeve Martin, deals comprehensively with the issue of discipline in schools and sets out models of best practice in this area. A copy of the report was sent to all schools and is, I am sure, a valuable resource for school authorities in this area.

In addition, my Department gives assistance in securing placement in individual cases. Typically, this can arise where a pupil has been excluded as a result of disruptive behaviour and where alternative arrangements need to be made. In these circumstances my Department endeavours, through a process of consultation with the schools involving the inspectorate, to assist in the re-instatement of the pupil in the school or, alternatively, his-her placement in another school. In more difficult situations the national educational psychological service is available to assess pupils in order to determine the nature and extent of any special needs, with a view to having them addressed in the most appropriate manner.

While these measures provide protections for students, I have, in addition, brought forward a comprehensive range of legislative measures in the Education (Welfare) Act to address general issues related to school attendance and discipline in schools. The legislation provides for the establishment of a national educational welfare board with responsibility for monitoring school attend ance on a countrywide basis. The board will employ educational welfare officers who will be deployed locally to assist all recognised primary and second level schools. The Act will require schools to report suspensions that last at least six days to their local educational welfare officer. Schools will also be required to report to their educational welfare officer before expelling any student. In such instances the role of the educational welfare officer will be to bring together the relevant parties to try and identify a mutually agreeable solution to provide for the education of the student concerned. The automatic involvement of the educational welfare officer in these situations will provide a key means for the early identification and support of children at risk of dropping out of school.
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