WHEN the head of a school held up by the Prime Minister as a shining example of good practice describes a pillar of government policy as a recipe for classroom disaster everyone should listen.

Such is the importance of today's criticism of schools being forced to accept seriously disruptive pupils.

Because it is not as if this accusation comes as a cloak for under-achievement from a school that is performing poorly. It is delivered by Mr Michael Humphreys, head of Our Lady and St John RC High School in Blackburn, which was showcased as a beacon of excellence.

He warns that the government's social inclusion policy of making schools accept abusive and trouble-making pupils is a recipe for disaster because it is making the teacher recruitment problem worse.

And, Mr Humphreys warns, the situation is not just the result of the compulsory injection of insubordinate youngsters into ordinary classrooms when they should be in separate specialist units, but is also due to teachers being fed up with increasing bad behaviour and indiscipline generally.

To blame for this, he says, is the constant vilification that the teaching profession had been subjected to by successive governments, demoralising staff leading to a lack of respect from many parents and, in turn, influencing the way children respond.

It may be that reversing this process will take time, but with the staffing crisis in schools already so bad that some specialist teachers cannot be recruited at all, even by good schools like Our Lady and St John, the government should stop it and the discipline decline being worsened by forcing 'bad' children into them.

High-minded as the social inclusion policy may be, the reality is proving that such pupils --and their parents -- should be dealt with outside the mainstream.