Teachers say class sizes must be reduced

The figures from the Scottish Executive focus on exclusions for physical and verbal abuse.

Education Minister Peter Peacock said they showed that teachers had the freedom to deal with disruptive pupils.

But the biggest teaching union, the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), condemned the report's findings.

According to the figures, 40,000 youngsters were temporarily removed from school last year - a rise of seven per cent.

A breakdown of the statistics also highlighted how the expulsion table added up:

• 25% - general or persistent disobedience

• 22% - verbal abuse of staff

• 14% - physical abuse of fellow pupils.

Reverend Ewan Aitken, the education spokesman for the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, said: "Head teachers must be able to take steps to address difficult situations and temporary exclusions are a significant tool in doing this.

"They are not the whole story, however, and schools should be congratulated on the many examples of rehabilitation of excluded pupils where further exclusion has not happened."

He added: "It is heartening to see that permanent exclusions have fallen - evidence of quality and range of measures to promote good behaviour."

'Correct problems'

The Scottish National Party accused ministers of being forced to catch up with a problem of their own making.

Education spokeswoman Fiona Hyslop said: "The Scottish government is regularly having to correct problems that it has caused with its policy initiatives in the past.

"It took away powers for head teachers to exclude some years ago and only relatively recently has given these powers back to schools, so we would have expected some rise this year."

Teachers are using the new freedom I have given them to ensure less disruption for the majority of pupils Peter Peacock MSP Education Minister

Ms Hyslop continued: "Indiscipline is one of the biggest problems in education now and I'm pleased that the government is finally playing catch-up in recognising this."

The Educational Institute of Scotland teaching union said that unruliness was contributing to a national shortage of classroom staff.

Improvements could only be achieved for teachers and pupils by radically reducing class sizes, which will be difficult against a background of staff shortages.

'Zero tolerance'

Mr Peacock replied that his policy was allowing teachers to get on with the job of teaching.

"Before, head teachers were feeling under pressure to keep some pupils in school," he said.

"Now they are using the new freedom I have given them to ensure less disruption for the majority of pupils and to take a zero tolerance approach to violent behaviour."

Conservative education spokesman, James Douglas-Hamilton, said: "The Labour/Lib Dem Executive is deceiving itself if it thinks that these are positive figures.

"They only go to show that the education minister is not giving the necessary support to teachers."