| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Rob Marris: Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr. Collins: I have given way twice to the hon. Gentleman, so, if he will forgive me, I shall make progress.
This morning, on Radio 4's "Today" programme, a teacher named Richard Anderson appeared. He is the teacher whose case has been widely publicised after huge numbers of present and past pupils backed him when he was suspended after a bag he threw towards a disruptive pupil hit that child. Mr. Anderson said this morning:
"There is a detailed and specific child protection act but there is nothing in place for teachers. The teachers do need a charter of their own . . . that protects teachers just as much as children.
There are increased pressures on teachers and they are finding it very difficult to survive with so few sanctions at their disposal."
That teacher is right. Teaching unions are right. Discipline matters, so protecting teachers matters. If the Government will not take action to do that before the election, Conservatives in office will do so after it.
4.3 pm
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Skills (Mr. Stephen Twigg): I beg to move, To leave out from "House" to the end of the Question, and to add instead thereof:
"welcomes the high priority the Government gives to improving behaviour and discipline in schools; supports Government measures to promote positive behaviour by empowering headteachers to deal with badly behaved pupils; celebrates the success that is evident, including attendance being at its highest ever level and Ofsted reporting behaviour satisfactory or better in 99 per cent, of primary schools and 95 per cent, of secondary schools; affirms the Government's commitment to tackle problems that remain; further supports the Government's reform of exclusions to strengthen the power of headteachers; deplores attempts to destroy that system, which would expose headteachers to litigation; welcomes the fact that headteachers, local education authorities and staff are endorsing Government plans for Foundation Partnerships which help schools co-operate to put pupils back on the right track; notes that capacity of pupil referral units has almost doubled under this Government to 13,000 places; considers that to multiply this capacity by six would not represent cost-effective spending on behaviour; deplores the suggestion that privatised borstals are the answer to every problem; endorses the action that the Government is taking to keep drugs and knives out of schools; further endorses the Government's drive to ensure that parents play their part in ensuring that children attend school regularly and behave well; further supports the Government's reforms for dealing with allegations against teachers swiftly and fairly; and agrees with the Government that no pupil has the right to disrupt the education of others and that every pupil, not just the few, should have the opportunity to succeed in life and to contribute."
We take the issue of behaviour and discipline in schools extremely seriously. For that reason, I very much welcome today's opportunity to set out the progress that we are making and the challenges that we continue to face. Discipline in schools matters for many of the reasons that the hon. Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Mr. Collins) set out. It matters for obvious educational reasons in the school; it matters because ill-discipline and bullying can affect the confidence and self-esteem of children, and their safety; and it matters because improving behaviour and tackling ill-discipline in schools will reduce criminal and antisocial behaviour later on, with a wide community benefit.
That is why we have invested significantly in improving behaviour, with a programme over the last three years of £470 million to improve behaviour both universally and through targeted support for schools, where the challenges are at their greatest. It is why we believe that every child has the right to the best possible education, the right to enjoy their learning in a positive environment, the right to achieve, and the right to make the very best of their life—every child, not just the few.
I shall address the points raised in the motion in turn. In a sense, the motion starts with the areas of consensus:
"That this House notes that the vast majority of pupils are well-behaved and eager to learn but is concerned that their ability to do so is increasingly undermined by a disruptive minority".
Of course I agree that the vast majority of pupils are well behaved and eager to learn. The vast majority of learners behave well almost all the time. They benefit from engaging teaching, and from the encouragement and support that they get from teachers and other members of our staff. They also benefit from this Government's massive investment in support for positive behaviour.
When I go to schools and meet pupils, I am impressed with what I see, as, I am sure, are Members in all parts of the House. Last month, I had the opportunity to attend the Diana awards, at which I met a young woman who had set up a bereavement counselling service in her school, and a young man who is leading the anti-bullying peer support network in his school. More recently, I went to Deptford Green school in south London, where I met pupils involved in the school council, which is ensuring that the voice of pupils is properly heard at all levels within the school.
Dr. Starkey : Does my hon. Friend accept that children are often led to become disruptive because they are having extreme difficulty in coping with the teaching in the classroom? In those circumstances, investment in classroom assistants or support mechanisms for those children is a more useful tactic than immediately excluding them from school and further disrupting their education before they are allocated to another school.
Mr. Twigg: I thank my hon. Friend. She is absolutely right. The investment in classroom assistants and other adults working in schools—I shall refer later to the role of learning mentors—plays a vital part in enabling schools to promote the very best behaviour.
We must, however, accept that there is a disruptive minority, as the motion correctly states. A central plank of our policy is to tackle disruption and to promote
13 Dec 2004 : Column 1405
good behaviour. Contrary to what the motion says, there are some signs that behaviour overall is improving: the 25 per cent. reduction in exclusions since 1997 is something to be proud of. If we examine the evidence from Ofsted, we see that behaviour is regarded as satisfactory or better in well over 90 per cent. of schools inspected. Of course, we all know that good attendance reflects an improving climate of good discipline in schools.
Truancy is a big challenge. We were disappointed by a small increase in unauthorised absence in the past year, but that was combined with a larger decrease in authorised absence. As a result, school attendance is at its highest since records began. When we came to power in 1997, school attendance stood at 92.77 per cent. The latest figures, published provisionally in September, showed an increase to 93.43 per cent.—
Mr. Twigg: Expressed in percentage terms, it does not sound dramatic, but when expressed in terms of the number of pupils, I am sure that even the hon. Member for Buckingham (Mr. Bercow) would accept that an additional 17,000 pupils in school each day this year, compared with the previous year, is to be celebrated. The fact that there are over 40,000 more pupils each day in school, compared with 1996–97, is real evidence of improvement, which I would hope that all parts of the House would celebrate.
Mr. Andrew Turner (Isle of Wight) (Con): Is the Minister using the aggregate figures for authorised and unauthorised absence, or merely those for unauthorised absence?
Mr. Twigg: I am using the aggregate figure for authorised and/or unauthorised absence. At the beginning, I acknowledged the weakness in my case by saying that, in the past year, unauthorised absence had marginally increased, although authorised absence had fallen much more dramatically than the overall figure showed. That resulted, as I said, in school attendance being the highest on record. Part of the reason for that shift is the fact that schools are increasingly reluctant to authorise certain forms of absence that they authorised in the past—for example, term-time holidays. We still have a long way to go on truancy, and I do not underestimate the challenge, but I think we can be positive about a 25 per cent. fall in exclusions, behaviour said to be satisfactory or better in well over 95 per cent. of schools inspected by Ofsted, and school attendance at its highest-ever level.
Mr. Mark Francois (Rayleigh) (Con):
The Minister obviously visits a number of schools. Indeed, we all do so, in our role as constituency Members. I have never yet met a head teacher who made the decision to exclude a pupil lightly, but I am sure the Minister would agree that a disruptive pupil takes up a disproportionate amount of the time of both classroom teacher and head. When will the Government start thinking about the 29 children in the class who suffer because of a disruptive pupil, instead of always seeking to defend the disruptive pupil to the disbenefit of all the well-behaved children?
13 Dec 2004 : Column 1406
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |