ACT wants disruptive students removed from classrooms — and is proposing a law to make it happen.
ACT candidate Paul Henry announced the policy on Sunday, pitching it as straightforward: if a student disrupts the class and won't stop, the teacher directs them out. Refuse, and consequences follow.
"Education is the key to a better tomorrow. Somehow, we've allowed disruptive students to steal valuable learning time from their classmates while teachers are denied the authority to stop them," Henry said.
The numbers he cited are bleak. Around half of teachers face disruption in every lesson. Forty-seven per cent say they lose 40 to 50 minutes or more a day dealing with it. New Zealand has recorded some of the lowest disciplinary scores in the OECD, and the Education Review Office has found poor behaviour is pushing good teachers out of the profession.
"How can we expect teachers to administer world class education if we are not providing them with world class support?"
Under the policy, teachers would have a clear legal power to direct seriously or persistently disruptive students to leave the classroom and go to a staffed, supervised space. Staff who use reasonable and proportionate intervention to prevent harm or property destruction would be legally protected.
At the sharper end: any assault on a teacher, student, or staff member would trigger immediate removal and a mandatory stand-down or suspension. Serious assaults would be referred to Police Youth Aid. Parents would be required to engage when behaviour becomes serious or repeated, and could be held liable for deliberate property damage caused by their child.
"At the sharp end, disruption becomes violence, threats, intimidation, bullying or deliberate destruction of school property. Teachers and students should not be expected to put up with that. Teachers are not bystanders in a classroom, they are in charge, and I want them to feel supported and respected."
Henry was direct about who the policy is designed to protect. "Most students behave well and want to learn. They should not have their education held hostage by a minority who refuse to respect their teacher or classmates."
He pushed back on any suggestion the approach was punitive. "This is not about returning to corporal punishment or locking children away. Removed students will remain supervised, and any physical intervention must be reasonable, proportionate, and backed by law."
"When the school system allows a disruptive few to wreck a whole class, it fails every child who plays by the rules. A teacher's job is to teach. ACT will give them the authority to get on with it."