| Pupils as young as three are 'being abusive' |
Four out of five teachers believe children's behaviour has become worse since they joined the profession.
Pupils as young as three are now being abusive, using bad language or threatening them, a survey shows.
The poll of more than 2,500 teachers in England and Wales found just 10% of respondents believing the conduct of pupils has not deteriorated in recent years.
The NUT says many are "highly critical" of the support they get in trying to deal with badly behaved children and are calling for in-school security to be beefed up.
It claims all local education authorities should have enough special schools to take children with emotional and behavioural difficulties.
Heads should have the right to refer such pupils for psychological assessment before allowing them into their school and teachers should have more training on how to deal with bad behaviour, the NUT urges.
The union claimed the survey, conducted by Dr Sean Neill of Warwick University, shows teachers worked in conditions of "continuous low-level harassment, in a climate where senior staff, outside authorities and parents were frequently not supportive or hostile".
The resulting poor morale was driving many teachers out of the classroom and into other jobs, fuelling the shortage crisis, it warns.
Almost six out of 10 say behaviour has become "very much worse" while a further fifth believe there has been a "fairly marked deterioration", giving a total of more than 80%.
The most common problem was the threat of pupil-on-pupil violence, not assaults on teachers, however. More than 80% of those polled reports it and 43% say they saw it on a weekly basis, while another 19% saw it at least once a month.
Story filed: 17:27 Thursday 20th September 2001
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