Discipline and poor pupil behaviour is the chief cause of low teacher morale in the principality, a survey of National Association of Schoolteachers Union of Women Teachers Cymru members revealed this week.

Only last month, Welsh education minister Jane Davidson said schools were “well on their way” to meeting the Welsh Assembly’s target of reducing permanent exclusions by a third to 313 by March 2003.

But new figures show that, far from continuing to fall, the total rose from 337 in 2000 to 430 in 2001, with a jump from 38 to 78 in primary schools. The number of fixed-term exclusions also climbed, from 8,200 to 11,700.

In England, local authorities and schools responded swiftly to the Government’s aim of cutting permanent exclusions by a third from the 1997 level of 12,700 and met the target two years early. English education ministers are not setting further targets for exclusions.

An Assembly spokeswoman said Wales had not abandoned targets but the emphasis had now shifted to such measures as pupil-referral units and planning for reintegration into mainstream and special schools. Unlike England, Wales has no target to provide full-time education for all excluded pupils.

In 2000-1, the largest group - a third - of the 430 pupils permanently excluded from school were having home tuition, and a further 66 were transferred to another mainstream school. Only 46 were in pupil-referral units.

The NASUWT survey, unveiled at its annual conference in Cardiff, found 93 per cent of members believed pupil discipline had deteriorated since 1997. Nearly eight out of 10 had been verbally abused by a pupil.