Poorly behaved students should be forced to improve their disciplinary record or face having their behaviour noted on a student reference provided to prospective employers, a leading teacher union has claimed.
In its full submission to the task force on student discipline, the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI), which represents 13,000 teachers at second and third level, says every second-level student in the country should receive a "standard student reference".
This would cover areas such as attendance, behaviour, punctuality and participation.
At a time when many teachers are struggling to deal with a discipline crisis in second-level schools, the TUI believes the reference could be used to force students to improve their behaviour.
The TUI says the reference, which would be amended on an ongoing basis, could be inspected by pupils and their parents or guardians. It would ordinarily be used for access to employment, training or education courses.
"TUI envisages that the student reference would be in a standardised format, recording a pupil's attendance, punctuality, participation, behaviour and other agreed areas," the submission says.
"Whilst care would have to be taken to ensure the inherent fairness of the standardised format, TUI believes that such a reference would have a beneficial and mediating effect on pupil behaviour throughout the period of schooling."
TUI assistant general secretary Declan Glynn said it "would surely assist with positive behaviour throughout a student's years of schooling".
Students who displayed symptoms of challenging behaviour earlier in their school career should be entitled to expect that this would not automatically be documented if their behaviour improved later.