Disruptive behaviour in classrooms has worsened as a result of the recession and education cutbacks, the Teacher' Union of Ireland has warned.
The impact of pay cuts and job losses on some families has led to increasingly difficult behaviour among students, say the union. Schools are losing structures they have put in place to tackle indiscipline because of the embargo on filling posts of responsibility.
In a Behaviour and Attitudes survey carried out on behalf of the TUI last week, 81 per cent of teachers said that dealing with discipline had increased their workload over the last five years.
“Classroom disruption remains a matter of immediate concern to parents because it deprives their children of a proper learning environment,” TUI general secretary Peter Mac Menamin told delegates at the union’s conference in Ennis, Co Clare.
“Most social problems manifest themselves initially in the classroom. Teachers have said that the predicament the country finds itself in is impacting on student behaviour.”
The Behavioral Support Service was established three years ago to target discipline in schools. Some 33 schools have been identified for extra staffing and support to deal with disruptive students.
“What we have seen is small scale and underfunded. Education cutbacks are completely eroding the good work that has been done,” said Mr MacMenamin.
The moratorium on the filling of management posts in schools is having a “disastrous” effect on school discipline as many pastoral positions are no longer being filled as vacancies arise, according to Declan Glynn, TUI assistant general secretary. “Bad behaviour is often a cry for help,” he said. “If it goes unheeded it can lead to serious consequences.
“These children often come from dysfunctional families and you feel like putting your arms around them and telling them the world will get better. Year head spend hours talking to these children, keeping them in the system when they might otherwise drop off the edge.
“The embargo on filling posts, coupled with the increase in the pupil teacher ratio, means that the time is not there to spend.”
Meanwhile, the Behaviour and Attitudes Survey also found that racist bullying is a growing problem in Irish schools.
The survey found that 40 per cent of teachers in VEC and Community and Comprehensive schools had more than four minority ethnic students in their classes. Some 13 per cent taught more than 10 students from non-Irish backgrounds.
These teachers needed in service training to deal with issues to integrating these students into the school community and dealing with incidents of racism and bullying, said Annette Dolan, TUI Deputy General Secretary.
“There is an attitude that the recession has put an end to immigration and that support for students is not longer a priority,” she said. “The reality is that there are still thousands of children in the system that need support and teachers need the right training help them.”
The NCCA has produced a guidelines document of interculturalism, but there is currently no in service training available to teachers, she said.
“We will be approaching school management bodies to develop anti-racism policies for all community and comprehensive schools,” said Ms Dolan.
“Asking schools to develop their own policies is not enough. If we can draft a policy, with management bodies, they can work with schools on implementation. What is really needed is intercultural in service education for all teachers.”