AN EAST Lancashire parliamentary candidate says teachers should be given more rights to discipline unruly students and stop disruptive behaviour in the classroom.

Trisha Buzzard, Tory PPC for Rossendale and Darwen, called for an end to "spare the rod and spoil the child attitudes," when she spoke at the Tory Party Conference.

She said: "I believe that they are to blame for increasing disruption in schools."

Ms Buzzard said teachers were becoming more frustrated in their efforts to teach, as their time was taken up trying to control unruly pupils. Her bid has been welcomed by one head teacher in the constituency, although he claims corporal punishment is not the answer.

Richard Bridges, head teacher at Moorland High School, Darwen, said moves to give teachers the right to detain pupils without parental consent were to be welcomed.

But he added that aggressive punishment would not provide the answers.

He said: "We have a policy in school of separating pupils who misbehave from others. They are still taught, have breaks and their lunches, but not with other pupils.

"We find the children do not like to have their privileges taken away from them."

The head said in a minority of cases parents would not permit teachers to keep their children behind after school and there was nothing that could be done about it.

He said caning pupils would only serve to increase aggression within schools.

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