Education Minister Milton Scott has hit back at critics who claim teachers are no longer able to punish their students.

He has come under fire in recent weeks from the Opposition, the Bermuda Union of Teachers (BUT), and a member of his own party, MP Derrick Burgess, over steps to drastically reduce the number of suspensions and expulsions of pupils from schools.

They claim, as a result, teachers are unable to keep unruly students out of their classes, which makes them difficult to control and teaching sometimes impossible.

They each said Government should put other discipline measures in place if it was to discourage schools from sending pupils home.

But Senator Scott responded this week to the latest criticism on the subject from BUT leader Michael Charles.

Mr. Charles said teachers felt unable to bring unruly children under control, which spoilt education for the remainder of the pupils.

Sen. Scott said: "Mr. Michael Charles said that teachers no longer have any power to discipline their students.

"This is simply not true. Teachers may still give students in-school suspensions and, in cases in which students need to be away from the school for a while, there are also out-of-school suspensions available.

"Most schools already have an in-school suspension programme up and running.

Both senior schools have been provided with an additional member of staff for precisely this purpose.

"It is absurd to say that teachers are not qualified to supervise students taking an in-school suspension -- these are the same students and the same problems that teachers expertly deal with day in and day out.'' He said students would be removed from their class, but kept within their school, if they had displayed "inappropriate behaviour''.

But he said violent students would be taken out of the building if their problems proved more serious. However, even then, they would not be sent home.

The Senator added: "Most parents in Bermuda work, and there is no guarantee that a student who is sent home will have someone to take care of him or her.

And, just as importantly, we have a responsibility to provide an education to all the children in our schools.

"How can a child learn if he or she is sent home from school? So, we provide out-of-school alternatives using other agencies, such as the Coalition for the Protection of Children and, from September, the restructured CADET programme.'' Minister reads critics the riot act The union's Mr. Charles, Shadow Education Minister Tim Smith and PLP backbencher Derrick Burgess, who is also president of the Bermuda Industrial Union, said teachers were being stressed over the lack of discipline in schools.

Mr. Burgess said: "When I was going to school there was law and order -- there was discipline.

"Now, teachers can't send children home like they used to -- but there is no alternative.

"Law and order has been removed from the classroom and it has not been replaced with anything.

"Teachers in public schools claim 40 percent of their time is lost on disruptive behaviour. We have teachers dreading going to school because of what is going on.'' And Mr. Smith said some pupils needed to be expelled from the classrooms to protect the majority of students who wished to learn.

He said: "Public education must have a discipline code and this code must include suspension and expulsion. If it is rarely or never invoked, then it makes a mockery of the code.'' There are about 6,000 children at public schools on the Island.

In the school year 1998 to 1999, there were 924 suspensions. For the year 1999 to 2000, there were 675 suspensions.

However, from September to December last year, Government's policy of keeping students in school really began to kick in, with the Education Ministry reporting just 88 suspensions for the quarter.

Nobody has been expelled since the PLP came into power in November 1998.

Instead, principals have been asked to come up with alternative ideas and pass them on to the Ministry.

Sen. Scott said: Finally, I would like to emphasise that teachers should not be put in a position where they fear for their safety.

"In extreme cases, if a student is being threatening, and damaging property and the school has done what it can to deal with the student, they should call the Police and have the student removed from the property and taken into Police care.''