The Government should establish a commission to combat increasing levels of unruly behaviour in schools, the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) has said. John Downes reports.
Schools have been particularly affected by some of the negative consequences of the changes in Irish society in recent years, said the TUI. This has led to "more challenging" behaviour in classrooms than was the case even a decade ago.
"Subtle intimidation of teachers, open defiance, lewd and vulgar language and aggression are all worryingly commonplace, with both the intensity and frequency of such incidents greatly increasing in the last few years," said Mr Derek Dunne, president of the TUI.
"It follows that the learning process is impoverished for all when there are continual, unchecked occurrences of individual misbehaviour in the classroom."
Mr Dunne called on the Minister for Education and Science, Mr Dempsey, to establish a commission on school discipline to provide recommendations and analysis of what can be done to alleviate the problem.
"All the partners in a school community - students, parents, teachers and management - should actively collaborate and reach a consensus on school policy on discipline, and we also believe that teacher stress should be identified as a hazard in school safety statements," he said.
"Poking fingers at individual teachers and schools only serves to deflect focus from the lack of resources available to tackle this major issue," he said.
Mr Dempsey last night declined to comment on whether such a commission would be established.