The chairwoman of a parents' organisation warned yesterday there was a risk of creating a climate of negativity and hostility between students and teachers and teachers and parents.
Ms Kathi Dillon, chairwoman of the National Parents Council - Primary, said much had been said in recent times about school discipline - much of which was a source of concern, disbelief and anxiety to them. At the opening of the annual delegate conference in Limerick, Ms Dillon said: "I know I am speaking for all parents in saying we are deeply upset by recent commentary, particularly by organisations that should know better, which attempt to paint all children as disruptive and difficult and all parents as abdicating their responsibility."
The vast majority of students were committed to learning, as were the vast majority of parents. The majority of teachers would say they enjoy their teaching.
"We are stunned by the fact that where a teacher was found guilty of inappropriate behaviour towards a child, the response was to call for rigid codes of discipline for children instead of for teachers," she said.
They heard calls for contracts to be signed and sanctions enforced against parents. Primary school children, it seemed, must take sole responsibility not only for their own actions, but also for the unacceptable behaviour of adults in whose care they were placed.
"This type of commentary is dangerous and reactionary," Ms Dillon said. There must be fairness and equity in the system. If there were any contracts to be signed, they should guarantee the appropriate behaviour of teachers. The theme of the conference is literacy.
The Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science, Mr Willie O'Dea, said the Education Act was very positive for parents. In addition to providing a statutory underpinning for parental representation on boards of management, the Act provided parents with a range of rights regarding access to information on the educational progress of their children.
The Minister said that advances in information technology should not distract them from the need to impart the essential educational basics to their children, and reading ability was one of the most important skills that children should acquire. No child should come to the end of primary school without having acquired a good standard of literacy.