The Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association today called for stronger action by local authorities and the Scottish Executive to reduce the level of violence in Scotland’s schools.

"It is no longer adequate to cite "bedding in" of the reporting system as the reason for the 50% rise in reported in incidents since last year", said David Eaglesham, General Secretary. "This Association has always accepted that it would take some time for the reporting system to be fully established and for reporting of violent incidents to become a normal step for those affected to take. It is, nonetheless, patently obvious that the problem of violence has increased over time. You do not need to be in a snowdrift to tell you it is wintertime.

SSTA members continue to report serious concerns about violence of all forms in schools. They also report greater pressure to retain in mainstream schools pupils whose behaviour is unacceptable and disruptive to staff and other pupils. Valuable educational opportunities for the vast majority of pupils are lost as a result of the extra time spend on the few disruptive pupils."

The Association has frequently condemned the arbitrary targets set for reducing exclusion from schools as being counterproductive. "Regardless of the statistical health warnings, the level of violence in Scotland’s schools remains unacceptably high and at this date too little by way of time and resources has been brought to bear on targeting the problem. It is time to reinforce the "Zero tolerance" concept on violence in Scotland’s schools. This Association will therefore be writing to the Scottish Executive and local authorities to call for new and additional measures to make clear to young people that violence is completely unacceptable in our schools.

There is a real danger that if we wait for too long for a clear trend to be established in the reported figures we will have failed to prevent a real increase and the establishment of the more violent culture evidence elsewhere in society."

Further information from

DAVID EAGLESHAM

General Secretary

Telephone: 0131 556 5919