Minister for Education Mary Hanafin has published new legislation to make it easier for schools to expel and suspend disruptive pupils. Seán Flynn,Education Editor, reports.
Amid growing concerns about a "discipline crisis" in second-level schools, the new Bill gives priority to the overall needs of the school community - rather than the needs of individual pupils.
The legislation is a response to complaints from teachers' unions and school principals that the current legal framework makes it difficult to deal with even the most unruly pupils.
Parents can appeal expulsion or suspension under Section 29 of the Education Act.
The problem reached a crisis point two years ago, when a 14-year-old student, who threatened a teacher with a hammer, was allowed to return to his school after successfully appealing his expulsion.
The boy, who attends a school in Munster, had also stabbed a fellow pupil with a pen and been found in possession of knives on the school grounds.
His successful appeal provoked outrage among teachers at the school.
For the past two years, the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) has helped push the subject of discipline to the top of the education agenda.
Last year, a TUI survey found that one-in-five teachers was threatened or intimidated by students and most had their classes seriously disrupted.
Last year, a Government task force on student behaviour recommended an amendment to Section 29 making it easier to expel or suspend unruly pupils.
Ms Hanafin said the new legislation supports the rights of all teachers to be able to teach in a learning environment. "Schools who adopt appropriate procedures in relation to the suspension or expulsion of a persistently disruptive pupil can be assured that this new legislation balances the rights of the vast majority of pupils who want to learn in a calm environment and teachers who want to teach students, alongside educational interests of the pupil who is taking the appeal."
The new Bill will require an appeals committee, operating under Section 29 of the Education Act, to take account of the educational interests of other students in the school, as well as the interests of the student who is the subject of the appeal, when deciding on a case.
Last night TUI assistant general secretary Declan Glynn said: "We welcome this new Bill, particularly the creation of an appeals committee, which we hope will affirm the rights of all students and teachers in a school. This provision is long overdue.
"However, we are disappointed that there is no mechanism for the appeals committee to look at the reasonable efforts made by a student who finds himself or herself facing possible suspension or expulsion.
"Also, we believe that the issue of appeals being upheld on a technicality should have been addressed."
General secretary of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland John White said the Bill will help to assert the need for school communities to recognise that the education of the majority of well-behaved students should not be subverted by the minority of disruptive students.
"We are pleased that the Minister has taken on board almost all of the suggestions we made in relation to this amendment," said Mr White.