Student service ‘superficial’

THE Government’s entire budget for dealing with student misbehaviour was spent on recruiting staff and establishing an administrative office, according to the Labour Party.

Despite figures showing that one in five teachers have been threatened or intimidated by students, schools have not directly benefited from the €2 million provided by the Government.

Labour’s education spokeswoman, Jan O’Sullivan, said the entire budget for implementing the recommendations of the Task Force on Student Behaviour was spent on bureaucratic measures instead of spending money at the “coal face”.

Details of how the €2m budget was spent were supplied to the Labour Party in a parliamentary question to Education Minister, Mary Hanafin.

She said a national coordinator, four assistant national coordinators, nine regional development officers and 20 part-time associates were appointed to the new National Behaviour Support Service (NBSS).

However, Declan Glynn of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) said the new service could be best described as a “slow bicycle race”. He reasoned that the 20 part-time associates recruited as teachers were the equivalent of only half a full time teacher.

The behaviour support service was also described as “shallow” and “superficial” by Mr Mc Glynn who asked if the Department of Education had yet developed an operational plan. An insufficient budget was also blamed for the slow start to the national service. “Funding continues to be abject. In Scotland, they spent £11m sterling on discipline and another £10m on top of that on the alternatives to exclusion fund,” he said.

Earlier this year, a survey of 1,000 teachers by the TUI found that some 21% of teachers witnessed physical violence by students on another pupil and 50% of teachers reported bullying by students of classmates.

In the Budget some €8m was allocated for NBSS in an effort to help schools promote positive student behaviour at second level.