Parents must do more to help tackle the persistent problem of low-level disruptive behaviour in the classroom, the Education Secretary said today.

Ruth Kelly's intervention was part of a government initiative, including a new task force of teachers and heads, that will tackle the culture of disrespect and unruly behaviour in schools.

Ms Kelly said she wanted to examine how parents could be encouraged to take their responsibilities more seriously.

"Parents have the right to have their child educated in an orderly classroom. But they also have a responsibility to get their child to school every day ready to learn," she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

The Education Secretary admitted that "low-level disruptive behaviour" in classrooms was an issue and had to be addressed.

"There is a persistent minority of schools - up to one in 10 schools – who don’t have satisfactory standards of behaviour," Ms Kelly said. "That is precisely why we are setting up this group because we want to get to grips with this issue."

The initiative was part of a push to build a "culture of respect" in the classroom, she said, with the number of serious incidents of bad behaviour reduced and permanent exclusions cut by 25 per cent.

Ms Kelly said there should be "zero tolerance" of bad behaviour in the classroom. However, if schools had previously excluded pupils, she said they should not have to have them in the classroom because they may have behaviour issues.

She hoped the new task force, Leadership Group on Behaviour and Discipline, will devise three or four programmes that have been proved effective in a range of schools.

"Then we can say to schools you should adopt one of these programmes and there is no excuse any more for poor behaviour in the classroom. We want to work with teachers and work with parents to get that right," Ms Kelly said.

She rejected suggestions that headteachers were overruled on expulsions in 20 per cent of cases, insisting the true figure was just one in 50. The appeals procedure was useful because it kept complex cases out of the courts, she said.

David Cameron, Shadow Education Secretary, told Today that heads should have the final say on expulsions. “In one in five cases when cases go to appeal the heads are overruled,” he said.

Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat education spokesman, agreed with Mr Cameron that another task force was not the answer.

"We need to back the headteachers, we need to make sure they have the qualifications, we need to make sure there are enough good headteachers," he said.

If the task force decided that heads need more powers, ministers would take action, the Department for Education and Skills said.

The group, which will be chaired by Sir Alan Steer, head of Seven Kings High School in Ilford, Essex, will consider whether teachers need more training to equip them for managing disruptive or violent children and local schools will be encouraged to work together.

The task force will report in October and its recommendations considered by another committee, chaired by Jacqui Smith, the Schools Minister, as well as unions, parents’ representatives and the Office for Standards in Education.

Meanwhile, the largest teaching union has called for urgent action to protect teachers alone in their classrooms after one of its members was raped by a 15-year-old boy.

The National Union of Teachers has written to Tony Blair and Ms Kelly calling for an inquiry into levels of bad behaviour and violence in schools from pupils and parents.

Steve Sinnott, NUT general secretary, said there were no comprehensive statistics showing the extent of the problem and a new inquiry into pupil behaviour was needed.
The rape of the teacher in London in September last year highlighted the need for measures to tackle pupil violence.

"This case raises a number of issues concerning the safety and welfare of teachers, other staff and pupils in our schools generally," Mr Sinnott said.

"It poses questions about the relationship between the police, social services and schools and the mutual sharing of information."

The schoolboy rapist, now 16, admitted at the Old Bailey earlier this month that he raped the teacher in a frenzied 12-minute attack.

The teacher, who remains anonymous, tried to defend herself but the powerfully built teenager head-butted her, threatened to kill her and eventually overpowered her, the court was told.

After the boy pleaded guilty it emerged that he had a history of violence and sexual allegations against him. He is due to be sentenced next month.

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