(Malta) Teachers unprepared for students with complex behavior problems

Aug 7, 2017, Times of Malta: Teachers challenged by difficult pupils https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20170807/education/Teachers-challenged-by-difficult-pupils.655108 A recent TV programme on the UK’s Channel 4 entitled Excluded at Seven revealed a serious problem faced by some schools that often expel young pupils because of violence and gross misbehaviour. Some move to other schools, where they often repeat the same pattern of bad behaviour. If the future well-being of our society also depends on the social skills that children develop in their early years of schooling, then we need to address the problem of challenging pupils who behave badly. Teachers will tell you that our schools are ill-equipped to deal with children with more complex needs. Some go even further and claim that heads of schools are pressurised to hit their achievement targets. They are increasingly eager to swiftly offload any troublemakers. But is chronic gross misbehaviour in our schools just a result of poor management and insufficient resources? Few doubt that society is changing at a fast rate. In a typical family today both parents are probably working on a full-time basis leaving them little time to interact with their children. Gone are the days when children spent their time playing on our streets or going to the various youth centres in our towns and villages to practise some sport or pastime…. The spread of knowledge in child psychology has also made it easier to diagnose complex behavioural and emotional issues like ADHD and autism. The big challenge facing school managers is that few, if any, teachers are professionally prepared to deal with the symptoms of such psychological conditions. Lack of funding results in unacceptable bad behaviour by a small minority of pupils as there are rarely enough professional child psychologists to monitor and help these challenging pupils.