Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

A small network of separate schools would not only help expelled students to reach their individual educational targets, they would also target resources towards young people in difficulty. The Minister, Deputy Hanafin, has stated her support for Youthreach time and again but these programmes are still on a pilot basis. Youthreach should be put on a statutory basis so it can be rolled out nationally, helping in the recruitment of the most dynamic teachers committed to this programme. When young people leave school early, it can be monumentally difficult to get them to re-engage with the education system and this can be addressed through the Youthreach programme.

As part of a new, innovative approach to behaviour issues, schools should enter into behaviour contracts with their students. This would involve the school organising a meeting for all parents and students, or individual students and parents if necessary, at which the school code of behaviour would be explained in detail. Parents and students would be informed of the warnings that would be given and actions taken in cases of poor behaviour. In this way, every student and their parents would know exactly where they stand if, for example, the student disrupted his or her class, was found to be bullying another student or was guilty of causing damage to school or teachers' property. Every second level student in the State would have a copy of their school's code of behaviour. Indeed, this process could be considered to some extent for primary schools as well. As part of this process, students and their parents would be asked to confirm that they fully understand the code of behaviour and the actions the school can take to enforce it.

In her submission to the task force on student behaviour, the Ombudsman for Children noted that there seemed to be a lack of awareness of the code of behaviour and discipline procedures in schools. This must be addressed. Parents, too, have a clear responsibility with regard to the education of their children in what is, and is not, appropriate behaviour. Parents must be fully engaged with schools in tackling discipline problems and in ensuring that their children act towards their teachers and peers in a way that is acceptable.

We must honestly engage with the huge resourcing problems that face our schools on a daily basis. For example, I recently uncovered from replies to parliamentary questions that half of all primary schools have no access to the national educational psychological service, NEPS. Many young children who need extra assistance from the early days of their education are being left behind by the Government. By the time they reach second level school, they are growing increasingly frustrated with the system and this contributes to disruptive classroom behaviour.

Access to these types of services is, undoubtedly, important from an educational point of view. However, these services also contribute to children and young people settling into school properly and combat early school leaving. Meeting the needs of all our children, without the excessive delays that characterise our education system, and listening to and engaging with young people openly will go a long way to improving the classroom and school environment.

Trainee teachers must be given all the necessary assistance in dealing with disruptive behaviour in the best possible and most up-to-date manner. Some inexperienced teachers, when presented with a case of serious indiscipline, may simply not know the best way in which it can be handled. Unwittingly, a discipline problem might be exacerbated by inappropriate action from an inexperienced teacher. All possible assistance should be given to new teachers to ensure that this does not happen and enhanced in-service training should be given to all teachers, new and existing.

An expansion of the home-school liaison service should be prioritised so that problems in the home environment, which may contribute to indiscipline in the classroom, can be properly assessed and assisted. There should also be greater co-operation between the Department of Education and Science and the HSE as some children fall between the remits of these two bodies.

Guidance services in place in schools are poor at best. Schools with an enrolment of fewer than 200 pupils receive only eight hours of career guidance counselling per week. Guidance counsellors could play an important role in improving the school environment through one-to-one and group involvement with students, but at present they are snowed under due to a lack of adequate resources. Serious breaches of school discipline or threatening behaviour against teachers should be reported immediately to the Department of Education and Science, which should know which schools face the greatest discipline challenges when allocating resources.

The involvement of students in discipline structures in our schools should be examined. Peer pressure can be a strong motivator for behavioural change. As well as involving student councils in the drafting of school codes of behaviour, there is room to go much further. A pilot project should be undertaken with a number of volunteer schools where students are involved in every aspect of the school's approach to discipline. This would mean that students would agree the text of the school discipline policy and would have a decision-making role with regard to the penalties that their peers face if guilty of breaking this policy. This would also mean that students are involved not only when problems occur but also at an earlier stage in managing and preventing lapses in discipline. As well as tackling school discipline problems, my concerns in this area also extend to the pressing need to introduce a national anti-bullying strategy in all primary and secondary schools. We need to explode the myth that bullying is a normal part of growing up for many children. Bullying is a deeply destructive behaviour that can have long-term negative consequences for individuals. In some extreme cases, it can lead and sadly has led to suicide.

Tackling student discipline problems and bullying behaviour at school would have a longer-term positive effect throughout society. Young people must be given clearer guidance and direction when their behaviour is unacceptable. To take a longer-term view, workplace bullying costs Irish business up to €3 billion per annum through poor productivity and absenteeism, children and young people of today will be the workers of tomorrow. They must learn that unacceptable behaviour at school, whether it is directed at teachers or other students, will be tackled when and where it occurs. This would also have a positive effect on tackling workplace bullying in later life.

An anti-bullying project, undertaken in Donegal with Trinity College, Dublin and based on a Norwegian model, resulted in a reduction of more than 60% in frequent bullying. The Norwegian Government was so impressed with the success of this project that it has adopted this model for its national anti-bullying programme. It is a shame the Minister for Education and Science does not share its commitment to tackling this problem.

The rise in anti-social behaviour in society can be tackled by challenging bullying and violent behaviour in our schools. Tackling school bullying in an effective way would therefore bring important long-term benefits to the country as a whole. Bullying is a vicious and destructive behaviour that must be addressed. Children who are bullied cannot be left without support and help, and the Minister, Deputy Hanafin, needs to introduce a national anti-bullying strategy in all schools immediately.

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