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The removal of corporal punishment in schools has been highlighted as a root cause of the rise in violence against teachers.
A New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) survey has found one in seven primary school teachers were hit by their pupils last year.
The study also found more than 50 per cent of teachers and more than 25 per cent of school support staff reported "aggressive verbal confrontations" with pupils.
Bob McCoskrie, national director of conservative family lobby group Family First, said a Justice Ministry report late last year showed serious youth violence had increased by 27 per cent since 1996.
"All of these young people have entered a system of education and society where discipline and responsibility are being replaced by the politically correct nonsense of childrens' rights," said says Mr McCoskrie.
"It is significant that as schools have removed corporal punishment, schools have become more dangerous. School yard bullying by pupils on other pupils and staff is now the new form of 'corporal punishment' in schools.
He said behaviour of pupils would will continue to deteriorate for "as long as we tell them that their rights are more important than their responsibilities."
The NZEI survey found the most common assaults involved students pushing, shoving or shouldering teachers, followed by "punched or struck with open hand" and "kicked or stomped".
Other reported being "scratched, kicked" and "hit by object".
Some of the attacks were not covered by the survey, so respondents wrote them in -- one noted "spat in face", another was headbutted.
Year 3 students accounted for nearly 60 per cent of the assaults, and, nine times out of ten, boys were the ones hitting their teachers.
The most common event leading up to the attacks involved children contesting staff members' directions, followed by attacks resulting from attempts to restrain the children from hitting others.
Twenty per cent of teachers and support staff said they had been verbally abused by parents -- often in front of their children.
"Parents are becoming an increasing problem, very verbal over very minor problems. [They show] very poor modelling for children," one principal said.
NZEI acting national manager Peter Monteith said violent students "seriously undermine the teaching and learning process." "The survey is a 'wake up call' for everyone involved in education either directly or indirectly to ensure that our schools remain safe and effective in terms of teaching and learning," he said.
- NZPA
