Minister for Education Mary Hanafin is to review legislation governing school expulsions as she attempts to address disruptive behaviour in the classroom.
Ms Hanafin announced a series of actions after the publication this morning of the report of a departmental taskforce on the issue in second-level schools. The report contains 21 broad areas of recommendation and lists more 100 associated actions to help schools deal with disruptive behaviour in the classroom.
Minister for Education Mary Hanafin
The new package of measures includes the establishment of behaviour support teams to work with schools with significant discipline problems and the expansion of existing Youth Encounter Projects and Youthreach services.
The Minister also said she would be reviewing the legislation governing expulsions. The taskforce recommended that legislation be amended to stress the rights of the compliant majority to learn while at the same time protecting the rights of the persistently disruptive student to an education.
In recent years, schools have found it difficult to expel unruly pupils. Four years ago, 79 per cent of pupils successfully appealed against their expulsion under section 29. However the situation has changed dramatically in the past year as school managements tightened their legal procedures. This year, the number of successful appeals has fallen to 25 per cent.
The new behaviour support teams' role will range from diagnosis of school problems to helping to deal with them. The teams, staffed by experienced personnel from the education sector and psychologists, will be in place in the next school year and will be working with up to 50 schools, Ms Hanafin said.
"I want the best people with real on the ground experience and the capacity to work collaboratively with those schools experiencing significant discipline problems. The first step in schools seeking support is one of themselves identifying the existence of a serious discipline problem," she said.
"The behaviour support team will become intensively involved in the school over a period of time. The desired outcome of this is an identification, at school level, of those measures and changes which need to be put in place in order to bring about a real and sustained improvement in student behaviour," she added.
Ms Hanafin said that she has secured €2 million to start the immediate implementation of the recommendations of the taskforce this year.
A survey published by the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) yesterday found that one in five teachers were threatened or intimidated by students and most had their classes seriously disrupted during one week in Irish schools last month.
The confidential survey was completed by the TUI among 1,100 teachers and 58 schools - with a total of 28,377 pupils
The survey reveals, for the first time, how indiscipline is undermining the teaching environment.