IN response to a recent letter commenting on the appalling behaviour of many pupils in schools today, including assaults on teachers, abusive behaviour and numerous other examples of bad behaviour. I can perhaps shed some light on this.

Apart from the destruction of the grammar schools and the introduction of comprehensives, another major step backwards in education occurred when the House of Commons voted, by the narrowest of margins, to abolish corporal punishment in schools.

Under no circumstances could they be caned or rapped on the knuckles, even if they were terrorising their classmates or even assaulting their teachers. Those who favoured the ban assured us that caning produced more violent children.

Since the ban, violence in schools has multiplied, and youth delinquency increased sharply, as most sensible people predicted it would. The streets are now roamed by feral youths who have never hesitated from misconduct for fear of being caned.

They have never feared an adult, or been shamed into better conduct.

But it is too late now, the left wing culture has been too ingrained in the teaching profession.

Nowadays teachers dare not even lay a finger on a child, even for the best of reasons, and it is the children who suffer from this misguided law.

David James Bolton