Jack McConnell

Jack McConnell has said parents should accept a share of the responsibility for improving discipline in Scotland's schools.

During exchanges in the Holyrood parliament, the first minister said a wide-ranging approach was needed to tackle the problem.

But Scottish Conservative leader David McLetchie accused the Executive of failing to deal with the issue.

McLetchie said the Executive's previous policy of seeking to reduce the number of difficult pupils being excluded from schools had "comprehensively failed".

He added that there had been "years and years of neglect by the Scottish Executive", which he said "didn't want to know" about the problem.

Responding to the claims, McConnell said he was trying to deal with a problem that had been ignored "every single year" of Conservative government.

The breakdown of families and social deprivation had contributed to the problem, he told MSPs.

'Making a difference'

McConnell insisted that his administration "is now making a difference".

But McLetchie said the explanation of Executive policies was "terrible".

"We need to give power back to our headteachers and our schools so they can take decisions... that would be a much more effective way of tackling this problem," he said.

The first minister accepted that headteachers should be supported, and said ministers and local authorities would do that.

"We also need to make sure we tackle school discipline right across the board," he said.

This would mean parents accepting their responsibilities for good behaviour in schools, McConnell added.