Alarm bells ring over violence in schools

Date: 14/11/1996

By Simon Coss

PRESSURE is growing for EU-wide action to tackle the difficulties faced by teachers in schools across the Union in coping with disruptive or violent pupils.

Education ministers will discuss the problem during a debate on 'school quality' at their meeting next Thursday (21 November).

“Studies in this area have been wide-ranging. We will be examining the quality of teaching in Europe's schools and also looking at issues such as pupil behaviour,” said an Irish official.

Parents' organisations are equally con-cerned. At a conference in Copenhagen later this month, the European Parents Association (EPA) and the European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE) will discuss violence in schools.

“This is a vast problem which needs to be tackled at EU level. We must find ways to help teachers and parents work together to deal with it. Our organisation is very conscious that parents have a key role to play here and that part of our job is to ensure they are aware of their obligations,” said one EPA official.

In recent months, the issue has been in the headlines in several member states: at a Belgian lycée, a playground argument turned into a fatal shoot-out; in France, a college student was stabbed to death for a pair of gloves; and in the UK, a school was closed because of escalating disciplinary problems.

No one is saying that the Union is facing the same sort of crisis currently being seen in many urban US schools, where pupils undergo metal-detector searches for concealed weapons.

However, teachers' organisations and parents' groups are warning that the situation can only get worse unless some concrete action is taken.

“Teachers are becoming scared to go to work, especially those who are employed in hauptschüle in more deprived areas of the city. I have heard that teachers are starting to find pupils are carrying weapons. I certainly would not feel very safe in a Frankfurt ghetto school,” said Wolfgang Böttcher of the German teachers' union GEW.

Similar anxieties are being expressed by educators across the Union. In France earlier this year, 40 teachers went on strike in the northern town of Colombes to protest at what they described as the “daily violence” they had to endure.

“We have had enough, we cannot take any more. Tough luck for the lost teaching hours. We are striking so that the education ministry will finally listen to us,” said one furious teacher. The protest was sparked by an assault on a headmaster by a youth (not a school pupil) who had refused to leave the school grounds.

The Irish teaching union ASTI has produced guidelines for teachers on discipline in schools, including suggestions on how to deal with classroom violence.

In Sweden, teachers can now obtain practical information on what to do when faced with death threats from a student.