THERE are two potential reactions to the disclosure that schools in Blackburn and Darwen expel pupils at almost twice the national average.

For we either conclude that, freakishly, our area has more troublesome school children than elsewhere or that teachers are perhaps reaching more readily for exclusion as a weapon against bad discipline.

Quite rightly, those who will be responsible for education in the two towns when the local authority assumes unitary status are determined to find out why so many children are being expelled.

But while the need to curb bad behaviour in schools is self-evident perhaps examination is also needed of the effects of expulsions.

For may they not simply remove troublesome youngsters from the classroom to the streets - to the benefit of neither the community nor the expelled?

While teachers' frustrations can be understood, it is nonetheless a fact that exclusions should be a last-resort in dealing with indiscipline.

And it would be worthwhile if the study now being undertaken in Blackburn with Darwen examined the results and benefits of the lesser step of "isolation" that some schools are now employing to deal with the unruly.

For it keeps the problem children at school, removes their disruptive influence from the majority and, arguably, educates them to the error of their ways.

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