THE latest education policy gambit by Tory leader David Cameron to simplify school exclusions is ill-thought through.

Excluding the local authority appeal process when a school proposes permanent exclusion is a vote of no confidence in all local authorities as well as an attack on the rights of the child. It assumes that the school will always be right. It assumes that independent citizens on an appeal panel (not local authority employees or councillors) will be unable to identify injustice.

In the overwhelming majority of cases the schools are found to be justified.

Disruptive behaviour must be addressed robustly and the school can be expected to have strategies to deal with it without allowing it to detract from the education of other children.

The idea of parent contracts is hardly new. They already exist for non-attendance with sanctions attached. Does Mr Cameron think that there is no connection between misbehaviour and parenting?

What makes his proposals to increase exclusions both pernicious and misguided is that many (most?) kids with behaviour problems have problems which cause the behaviour. Rejection from school is likely to exacerbate it.

COUNCILLOR BRIAN DASH, Hamspshire County Council.