Thousands of teachers in the UK fear chaos in the classroom if the Government goes ahead with plans to give them powers to restrain and search unruly pupils without proper training.
Four out of five teachers surveyed by the Teacher Support Network warn that extra training is essential if they are to get a grip on misbehaviour during lessons and avoid injury and false accusations of abuse when breaking up fights.
Teaching leaders claim that unless the issue is tackled in schools, the problems will continue into adult life. Problems range from name-calling and minor scuffles to homophobic and racist abuse, cyber-bullying and teachers being seriously assaulted. A survey of about 1,000 members of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) found that more than half had been confronted with aggression in the classroom in the past year. Almost 60 per cent agreed that behaviour had got worse in the past five years.
The key issue is that teachers are particularly vulnerable to false allegations by pupils,” said a spokesperson from the NASUWT teachers’ union. “This can have a devastating effect on their professional reputation, as well as their personal well-being. “Teachers have a duty of care to pupils which may at times cause them to intervene to protect pupils from harming themselves or other pupils,” the NUT warned. “Many are currently not confident that if they take such action they will be supported by senior leadership teams, parents or the local authority.”