Mercy Muroki: There is no discipline in classrooms any more, teachers are too afraid to enforce order

A man dubbed one of Britain's strictest headmasters has said that teachers have become 'afraid' of schoolkids and parents are often to blame for pupils' bad behaviour. Something, apparently, some deem controversial – which beats me.

Barry Smith, Regional Director at Community Schools Trust in London, has spoken to The Sun insisting that "parents need to teach common courtesy so that teachers aren't forced to pick up the slack"…

He says that teachers are abused, ignored, and belittled on a daily basis all because we bend over backwards in society to accommodate children. That we need to enforce discipline, and stop thinking that stricter is always negative. And I think he is absolutely right.

A large survey of teachers found that 1 in 4 say they face violence on a weekly basis. Every year, the biggest proportion of exclusions by far are for persistent disruptive behaviour. A third of permanent exclusions in England.

And Official Department for Education figures show that in England alone, an average of 5 students were permanently excluded every school day for physically or verbally assaulting an adult in the last academic year.

That's on top of the 33,000 temporary exclusions for the same thing. There is no discipline in classrooms any more. Society mollycoddles kids, teachers are too afraid to enforce a high level of respect, courtesy, and order. And, I'm afraid to say, many people think it's schools job to raise their children for them.

There's now too much talk of banning homework because it's too much work for kids growing little brains! of banning exams because they're too stressful, they'll lead to mental health problems!

Banning PE because we don't want to hurt kids' little feelings when they lose in an egg and spoon race. But there's not enough talk of discipline, of good old fashioned respect for those in authority. Instead, many would prefer to let kids run riot and do as they please.

And I'm not alone in thinking this. 60% of Brits think schools are not strict enough, with only 17% thinking they're too strict.

Yet whenever a school leader sticks their head above the parapet and says 'we need stricter schools!' They're treated as a tyrannical Miss Trunchbull-esque figure with fringe extremist view.

One of best thing we can do for classrooms is enforce discipline and mutual respect. It's just a shame we're becoming to soft to admit it.