Special behaviour units don’t work, say parents

PARENTS of children with severe discipline problems do not favour the kind of special behaviour units being set up by the Government in dozens of schools, it has emerged.

The views were expressed by the parents of pupils from Dublin’s north inner city whose regular trouble in previous schools is a factor in their enrolment in a youth encounter project school. The comments came to light in a Department of Education inspector’s report on school, St Laurence O’Toole’s in North Strand.

The parents told the inspector that school life was more manageable for their children because of fewer teachers, no homework and individual attention. But, in what the inspector described as a very significant point, parents also said they believed the school worked because it was an independent, stand-alone school.

“They strongly hold the view that a specialised unit within or attached to a mainstream school, even if such a unit were of the calibre of this school, would not work because their children ‘would always feel second-class citizens’ in such an establishment,” the inspector wrote.

These comments and the significance placed on them in the report could be seen as a negative signal towards the establishment behaviour support classrooms in about 30 schools. The aim of the project is to bring second level students with persistent behaviour problems into a setting where staff can focus on their discipline issues, and to allow their classmates to continue learning without regular disruption.

The plan is part of the behaviour support service set up by Education Minister Mary Hanafin on foot of the report of the Task Force on Student Behaviour in Second-Level Schools, published last March. The service has been allocated €8 million for its work helping schools promote positive behaviour next year. St Laurence O’Toole’s special school is one of five such projects in Dublin, Cork and Limerick where students with various social and behavioural problems can prepare for exams up to the Junior Certificate.

The evaluation report was one of 99 school inspection reports published on the department website yesterday.