Warnings from England that teachers are quitting because they will not tolerate rising levels of unacceptable pupil behaviour should be heeded in Ireland, the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) General Secretary, Mr John Carr, said today.
"Primary teachers here say that increasing amounts of their time are spent dealing with behavioural problems in schools. This leads to less time available for teaching and a rise in stress levels among teachers," he said.
One Dublin-based primary school teacher told ireland.comof how she was head-butted by a six-year-old female pupil.
"It was very humiliating. She got up on a desk and launched herself at me. I burst into tears. I was concussed and could barely make my way back to the desk," she said.
"The other pupils in the class started to cry when they saw me crying. Luckily one of them went and got the headmaster and told him that ‘my teacher is crying’. The whole school was in shock after it happened."
The six-year-old was suspended for three days. When the teacher in question met with the pupil’s parents they said that the teacher was the problem, not their daughter.
The child was made to see an educational psychologist, but could not be made to see a behavioural psychologist without the parent’s permission, which was not forthcoming. "The educational psychologist could do nothing because that was not what the problem was. She needed to see a behavioural psychologist," said the teacher.
She did not consider quitting the teaching profession, even though it happened in her first year after finishing college. "It might have been a different story if it was from a 12-year-old boy, but this was just six-year-old girl," said the teacher.
According to INTO research, 68 per cent of principal teachers reported that teachers deal with serious individual behavioural difficulties at least once a day. Most other principal teachers (23 per cent) reported that teachers deal with such problems at least once a week.
"These incidents of behavioural problems come in addition to minor misbehaviour in schools, which is dealt with as a matter of routine. From an educational perspective, the most frustrating part about this for teachers is that the well behaved and able pupils cannot get the help they deserve," said Mr Carr.
The INTO research also showed that in addition to aggressive behaviour towards teachers there is evidence of increased levels of anti-social behaviour of pupils towards each other.
Teachers also reported increased incidents of aggressive behaviour from parents or family members of pupils towards teachers.
