Act now over bad pupil and parent behaviour or risk losing even more teachers

One of the main reasons the Bath Spa report gave for 40 per cent of Scottish teachers wanting to leave the profession was the growing level of bad pupil and parent behaviour.

Speak to any teacher and they will tell you this, and the BBC Scotland Morning Call programme on Friday was besieged by teachers who either focused on, or included, bad behaviour, violence, disruption and lack of support from management in their litany of complaints.

But politicians and senior education managers studiously ignored it in their reaction to the report.

Opposition politicians blamed the SNP, and the SNP waffled about their reforms and about working with the Educational Institute of Scotland, and EIS leader Larry Flanagan, when specifically asked on Morning Call about behaviour, brushed it off as “low level” and focused on workload and teacher shortages.

Surely it is time for politicians to call a spade a spade, speak out on the major impact that poor parenting has on pupil behaviour and performance, and do something to support teachers, instead of pussyfooting around people who probably don’t vote anyway.

Or does somebody have to die first, as in Aberdeen, whose council is requiring all parents to sign letters pledging to educate their children on the dangers of taking knives to school after pupil Bailey Gwynne was stabbed to death? ALLAN SUTHERLAND Willow Row, Stonehaven More than 40 per cent of Scottish teachers are to resign their posts within 18 months, according to a study carried out by Bath University as working conditions in Scottish schools are now very stressful, leaving young teachers with little or no job satisfaction.

The SNP administration, who are in constant denial of the situation, have had many failures in their 11-year term, but education is the most serious, with dire consequences for Scotland’s future.

Teacher morale in Scotland is now at an all-time low and there must be an urgent review of teachers’ pay and conditions to address this crisis, as the damage done to Scottish education will take many years to mend. DENNIS FORBES GRATTAN Mugiemoss Road, Bucksburn