Schools and teachers should not use the withdrawal of physical education as a sanction against pupils who misbehave, the Minister for Education has said.
Mary Hanafin said she fully supported a call by the National Parents Council that the withdrawal of PE should not be used by schools as a means of disciplining pupils who misbehave.
"No way would we stand over stopping Irish as a punishment. In the same way I wouldn't stand over PE being stopped - PE is important in building a sense of teamwork, while it's also very important in helping to combat obesity," she said.
The Minister was addressing the annual conference in Cork yesterday of the National Parents Council who unanimously supported a motion on the issue of PE provision in schools.
Delegates backed the motion calling on the Department of Education to ensure that all schools were in a position to provide PE and that PE would not be withdrawn as a disciplinary measure.
Children's Ombudsman Emily Logan said there was a need for education legislation which obliged schools to consult children and young people in developing codes of behaviour.
"In my experience, deviancy is less likely to occur when students feel ownership of their environment, take an active role in the monitoring of their school and where there is a peer environment which does not favour bad behaviour," Ms Logan said.
Earlier, Ms Hanafin admitted that the State had a poor record in providing for children with special needs and it was still playing catch-up in improving services.
The number of resource teachers, however, had risen from 104 in 1998 to 2,600 now, she said, while there were now 1,500 learning support teachers and more than 5,000 special needs assistants, compared to 300 in 1998.