TUI conference: The growing problem of indiscipline in schools is causing more and more teachers to retire early on grounds of stress and depression, the TUI congress heard yesterday.
TUI assistant general secretary Declan Glynn said that 67 per cent of union members who retired prematurely did so for reasons of stress or depression. The comparable figure for nurses was 13 per cent and 25 per cent for civil servants.
He said teachers were being subjected daily to a range of verbal abuse, including shouting, arguing, defiance and wilful confrontation. At the most serious level, teachers were being physically assaulted and were on the receiving end of threatening behaviour.
"A worrying trend in behaviour is lewdness and vulgarity, especially directed at young female teachers," Mr Glynn said.
The TUI congress carried a motion yesterday calling on the Minister for Education to bring forward "workable and effective policy, strategies and interventions to promote positive behaviour and address pupil misbehaviour".
Mr Glynn said the Department of Education had not issued a circular on managing challenging pupil behaviour since 1991. "That last circular is now significantly out of date and wholly unacceptable for today's situation," he said.
It was always the aim of teachers to keep the student in the class setting where possible, but if this became impossible, teachers had no options. "Withdraw the student from class but withdraw him to what?" Mr Glynn asked. "Currently there is nothing." Suspending a pupil would deprive him of education, while expulsion merely meant that he was caught up in a cyclical process "in one door and out another".
Mr Glynn said there was "an inertia and a paralysis" in decision-making regarding suspensions and expulsions, as these decisions were "readily set aside" when they were appealed by students.
The problem of disruptive students was not shared equally by all schools, as those schools that considered themselves to be "better schools" operated a highly-selective enrolment policy, Mr Glynn said. These schools often suggested to the parents of prospective students that the type of learning support required by their child was available in another local post-primary school, "but, regrettably, not in theirs".
The TUI has asked the Government-appointed Task Force on Student Discipline to look at successful models from other countries, particularly learning support units which would be based in schools to meet the needs of students with behavioural problems.
Minister for Education Mary Hanafin told the TUI delegates she was anxious that the task force should quickly identify positive solutions. Ms Hanafin has asked the group to produce preliminary recommendations by June and said she hoped it would have completed its work by December.
