The State School Teachers’ Union has called for
the State Government to re-invest in student support programs, after reports of
dozens of violent incidents in WA schools this year.
There have been 63 reported incidents of
physical assaults or threats using a weapon, including pepper spray, knives and
scissors in the first four weeks of school this year.
SSTUWA President Pat Byrne said a number of
factors were involved, a significant one being the loss of $250 million out of
school budgets.
“As a result of this cut, about 600 teachers,
800 Education Assistants and 110 Aboriginal Islander Education Officers have
been taken out of schools in the last two years,” she said.
“It’s led to larger class sizes in most schools
- which may be within the maximum allowed - but are bigger than they were. Add
to this the loss of EAs and AIEOs and the consequences are significant - for
teachers and students.
“Programs designed to attract and retain
students at risk have been reduced or cut altogether because of fewer available
staff.
“This makes it much more difficult to engage
those students, and we are starting to see the consequences.”
Ms Byrne said parents also needed to take
responsibility for the behaviour of their children.
“We are very concerned about the apparent lack
of parental support for some students,” she said.
“Parents need to be aware of what their children
are doing. It is absolutely unacceptable for students to come to school with
knives and pepper spray.”
Ms Byrne said that while the number of violent
incidents was relatively small, the government needed to re-invest in support
programs quickly to ensure the problem didn’t escalate.
