03/10/2012 Newsnight Scotland

chaotic collapse. This is part of Tonight on Newsnight Scotland:

Keeping the peace in the classroom. How teachers deal with disruptive

students and mobile phones in class. And, after an ill-tempered debate

in parliament, do the political parties really want a substantive

debate on cuts and charges for public services? Good evening. Good

news for Scottish education as a new survey suggests most pupils are

well behaved and many are increasingly familiar with new

technology. But smart phones aren't necessarily creating a smarter

generation. In fact, one of the challenges for schools is dealing

with the misuse of mobile phones in classrooms. So, how do you

discipline the connected generation? Our correspondent,

OK, guys. We will begin in a second. Many of us have experienced seems

like these was dubbed either as students or teachers. Calm down. --

like these. Unruly pupils can make life miserable for pupils who want

to learn. In the first year, all the teachers said we had to do the

extra work at home. Everyone was talking. Them not able to go home

and do the same Revision. -- they are not able. Trying to listen to

the work but it does not happen. It sucks. The report highlights areas

of concern. More than a third of head teachers and teachers have

experienced abuse in the last year. There has been a rise in verbal

abuse, physical abuse and aggression towards them. Over the

past few years there has been a drop in demand of serious

disruptive behaviour and violence around schools. -- in the amount.

At this Academy in Glasgow, it is not in a leafy suburb. It has seen

remarkable improvements in recent years. Academic performance has

gone up and exclusions have gone down. The head teacher believes the

ethos at the school has helped. is very important - parental

backing. If you are open and honest with parents about expectations of

the young people, and the parents are in agreement with you, you are

more than halfway there. Far more school uniforms have been

reintroduced. Mr Dougherty has high expectations of his pupils.

looked very carefully at school uniform. That is the first visible

indication of the unwavering support from parents. We have done

very well in that respect. Parents have very clearly made the public

and of fierce commitment to the school for their sons and daughters

by dressing them as well as they do. -- fierce commitment. If children

are dressed professionally and of all the same, that sets a tone

within the classroom. We are hoping that points towards really good

learning. Across Scotland, the persistent problem is what is

called low-level misbehaviour. One new problem has emerged - the

misuse of Mobot phones. Texting, even phoning in class. -- mobile

phones. If I had been discussing an incident with a parent in my office.

I ask the parents, how can it be happening at the moment? The parent

says, my daughter has texted me. We tell parents it is a misuse of the

technology. If a parent needs to know something, we will contact

them. The role on mobiles is clear. Youngsters have mobile phones and

they have that technology. Parents want them to have that. That is a

fact. It is for the safety of youngsters. Parents must accept

their responsibility and help us make sure that technology is not

abuse. Where we are in class time, unless you have permission, your

mobile device is not allowed to be switched on. Dealing with serious

misbehaviour is no easy matter - far less tackling underlying issues.

Are some teachers simply not up to dealing with bad behaviour? Good

ones may have a certain authority or ability to engage students,

which can help discipline. How hard it is it for a teacher to

discipline are people who has texted their mother from class to

said they are getting a row? I'm joined now by Jim Thewlis, who is

the head teacher at Harris Academy in Dundee. When it comes to

disruptive behaviour, is the problem of pupils or the parents?

And if -- if we have the support of parents with discipline, it makes

life immeasurably easier. The majority of parents are very

supportive of the school. My experience is we have a parent body

that is fully behind, for the majority of the time and the

majority of the things we're trying to do for the school and the young

people. The new thing seems to be that technology has moved on. We

have young folk who know had to use the technology better than the

teachers. How big an impact is that having on classroom discipline?

What has been highlighted is the misuse of mobile phones. Technology

is much more sophisticated. It is used in a way which perhaps is not

a great deal different from the ways things have happened in the

past. With the agreement of the parents and the pupils, you can say

complex look forward with this. -- let's look forward. There are

issues within schools. There are occasions within my school where

technology has been misused. For the majority of occasions, it is

not a major issue. One thing that struck way in this survey is the

move away in schools from punishment exercises, if you like,

for bad behaviour, to restorative practices. What does that mean?

then any school, certainly be in my school, at 99% of young people will

be there until the time they are due to leave school. We know that

we have got to engage with young people. They have a professional

responsibility to the and people. From time to time, young people

will step out of line. Let's come back from theirs and carry on with

the learning process and make sure we can support you and achieve best

from your school Korea. It is to make sure they get on with the

MSPs have been discussing free stuff. Personal care, bus passes

for pensioners, tuition for students. The debate was initiated

by the Scottish Labour leader, Johann Lamont. She has set up a

commission to look into these universal benefits. The SNP say it

shows she is a Tory hell bent on punishing the sick and the elderly.

Here is a little sample of a bad tempered debate.

I believe this is in the national interest. The easy option would be

to sit back and pretend we can afford to pay for everything.

However, I care too much about Scotland's two do that. I care too

much about public services to let them bleed to death. It is not

universality versus means testing, it is about what we can and cannot

afford. It is about affordability, sustainability and how we protect

those most vulnerable in these tough times. To all of the people I

talk about, they're the people that think Labour should bear the brunt

of Tory cuts, the people that Labour would it subject to means

testing for a bus pass. We will protect the council tax freeze,

free education, bus passes and care for the elderly, and a health care

free at the point of need. We will do it in a balanced budget, a

budget that has been cut year on year by the Tory government that

Labour is so keen to team up with but will nevertheless strive to

boost growth. We wanted Mick's Cafe David Ferrer place to live. Da ayes

we want to make Scotland a good place to live. Doing nothing, if we

are honest, is not an option. It is not good enough to stand up and

stomp a speech and independence, it is important to look carefully,

critically and analytically at these issues. The Liberal Democrats

and their colleagues in the Labour Party delivered many universal

benefits, dental and eye checks. Tuition fees. Bible was but that

one. Bus passes. We delivered many of these issues together. It was us

to get there that delivered this. We're not against universal

benefits. The principle is not about universalism it is about the

wider benefit. What do you get from the investment.

I'm joined now by the former Labour minister Brian Wilson, and from

Edinburgh by the Herald's Iain Macwhirter. In a recent column, you

suggest it's that the commission was not bad politics, it was

potentially lethal for the Labour Party? The list is certainly going

to cause some political problems at the next election if they continue

like this. They lost in 2007 by a landslide, what will they offer at

the Scottish people in the next Parliamentary elections? Taking

away prescription charges? No more free press up there? People paying

�9,000 to go to university. politics of this looks bad? I don't

think they look bad at all. With all of this nonsense of our free

things for everything, these had been talked about by 90 % of the

population getting them. That was on that basis of people not getting

them and the ability to pay. That was affordable and will be

affordable again, no doubt. As anyone with any sense would have

said, you have to examine it. If we add to Campbell Christie's

Commission, Crawford Beveridge his report, everyone they looked at it,

the killer quote for the nationalists is surely, one of his

political heroes, Michael Russell, the Education Secretary, he said,

universality now drags down both the quality of the service to those

in need and the ability of the Government to provide such services.

The political parties do not have the courage to address the issue

for feel of losing votes. A pig by a Russell might have disowned him

self- or changed his mind. -- I think Michael Russell. He was

speaking before the financial crass. Bat crash. I never have been a

member of the Scottish Natural Party, so I do not accept that

definition as a nationalist. The welfare state is all about this,

universal benefits applied for child benefits and the NHS. A few

start taking these criteria to apply a means test then you have to

take them into account. It is not the wealthy people that are damaged

when you take away free prescription charges. They are

privately Capel bubble of doing without them. Bat capable of doing

without them. It is people with average has -- household earnings

there will be affected. They agreed to means test child benefit

shortly? Perhaps Ed Miliband is insisting that child benefit will

not be means tested for precisely these reasons. It is the universal

benefit. That is accepted by the Labour Party. There is no point in

introducing a means tested that? What you make of the point of those

people on the margins suffering falls? You have to review it ends

review of affordability. The idea that he would cherry-pick to war

three of these populist items and say their untouchable, everyone

must have them, it has been paid for by the ones that have not been

selected for universality. I have an interest in special needs, would

you like to tell us what you are the universal rights of people with

special needs?, because I do not see them. I see people all around

the country with cuts being made. The budget had been slashed. The

idea that Jupiter were three of these things which you think are

politically popular and say which had poor can have them, we are

progress that, it is utter rubbish. Most of these are Labour policies,

this is a bizarre situation. This is an act of extraordinary

political self-harm by a Labour, comparable, the worst since Gordon

Brown abandoned the 10 pence tax band. He also abandoned it because

he said it benefited wild to be both. -- wealthy people. Is he

seriously saying that Labour will go into the next election with

Scottish people paying �9,000 tuition fee? Nobody said that. By

June at a tiny budget that said that. It has just been invented.

Big will be �9,000 per head. That has been invented by him. You spoke

about affordability and Labour have spoken about affordability, what

would you suggest is taking no way to save cash? Which the services

were due remove? I do not suggest removing any of them. It is about a

balance. Everything is means that council tax to be means tested.

Nobody talks about �9,000 tuition fees. That is what it cost! That is

what it costs for their tuition! Are a understand you don't win to

hear this. They have cut the bursaries for the poorer students.

Nobody above �34,000 earnings but a bursary for higher education. They

have cut that by �890 a year were the poorest students. At last come