Jacqui Smith: "I hope parents will play their role"

The Education Secretary, David Blunkett, recently announced another 420 "sin bins", or learning support units, for disruptive pupils in schools in England.

These on-site units, which the government credits with helping to bring about the latest drop in exclusions, are designed to provide specialist teaching and reduce the disruption in mainstream classes - without formally excluding the pupils involved.

Mr Blunkett also announced cash incentives of up to �3,000 per pupil for schools which take in the most difficult pupils - such as those with criminal records or a history of truancy - who have been excluded from other schools.

Black pupils

And he said it was up to parents and other adults to help to encourage politeness and decency in the next generation.

Ms Smith pointed out that the recent falls in exclusions followed "substantial rises" through the last decade to the 1996/7 peak of 12,700.

In the early 90s, only about 3,000 pupils a year were permanently excluded from England's schools.

She said: "During the early 90s there was very little in-school help for schools, and too many excluded pupils were left to their own devices. That has now changed."

The government was spending a total of �527m up to 2002 on tackling truancy and exclusions, and learning support units were "already proving their value in getting disruptive pupils out of the classroom while keeping them in education".

The latest exclusion figures, published on Wednesday, also revealed that in 1998/9, the gap between the exclusions of black pupils and other pupils had narrowed - although black pupils continued to be "over-represented" among those expelled.

Ms Smith said this was why the government had doubled its budget for supporting mentoring schemes for pupils from ethnic minorities.

'Targets are detrimental'

She added: "I hope parents will also play their role in helping the government to tackle bad behaviour - they have the primary responsibility for dealing with badly behaved pupils and must work with schools to improve discipline and attendance."

Ms Smith said the government had made it "very clear" to head teachers that "we know there are times when exclusion will be necessary, not least where pupils are violent or where heads are trying to turn round a school in special measures".

But responding to the latest exclusion figures, the Shadow Education Secretary, Theresa May, said that the government's exclusion targets had put schools under "increasing pressure to keep disruptive children in the classroom or in the school".

This was detrimental to the education of both the disruptive pupils and their classmates, she said.

John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, also criticised the targets.

He said: "There has been a price to pay for the reduction in exclusion figures. This has been paid by the heads and teachers who have had to cope with disruptive pupils who would have been excluded in previous years."