Teachers should receive specialist training in how to manage disruptive behaviour in school, an advisory group to the Minister for Education has said.
The National Council for Special Education recommends that one teacher in every school in the country attend a three day seminar on how to prevent difficult behaviour and how to manage it when it occurs.
Mary Byrne, head of special education at the NCSE, said over €200m worth of additional teaching resources as a result of behavioural issues in schools were allocated last year.
"We have noticed an increase in the numbers of children applying for additional supports in schools in the last number of years. So we produced policy advice for the Minister and we highlighted a number of recommendations that we believe would help schools both to prevent difficult behaviour and to manage it when it occurs," she told RTÉ.
"The main recommendations are that teachers should be upskilled in the management of behaviour and we are recommending that one existing teacher in every school receives specialist training in management of behaviour."
The NCSE is also recommending that two education programmes, the Incredible Years programme and the Friends programme which have already been trialled successfully in counties Carlow and Kilkenny, be rolled-out around the country.
"We use the Incredible Years programme with younger children. It is very important that we intervene early in children's lives before these behaviours become embedded. This friends programme helps the student manage their behaviour themselves. To recognise when they're feeling anxious and to develop coping skills to deal with that," said Ms Byrne.
Ms Byrne said the results of the programmes were very positive.
However the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) today warned that the loss of teachers in schools as a result of cutbacks was extremely damaging to the promotion of positive behaviour in the classroom.
TUI general secretary John MacGabhann said the loss of 700 teachers in second level schools from last month due to changes to guidance counselling provision would have worsened the situation in many cases.
"We welcome this issue being brought to the fore, but it would be remiss of us not to highlight that the loss of teachers to schools due to cutbacks resulting in larger class groups and less attention to individual students is undoubtedly detrimental to promoting positive behaviour in the classroom," he said.
"We would have serious concerns that providing one staff member in each school with a short training period does not go far enough, particularly in large schools in communities worst hit by the recession."