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Michael Gove is adamant to restore discipline in classrooms through giving teachers absolute power in order to curb disruptive behavior in children.

Yesterday, the Education Secretary claimed that a lack of discipline in classrooms and truancy led to the violent August riots.

“For all the advances we have made, we still every year allow thousands more children to join an educational underclass— they are the lost souls our school system has failed,” he said, speaking at Durand Academy, in Stockwell, southwest London,

“It is from that underclass that gangs draw their recruits, young offenders institutions find their inmates and prisons replenish their cells.”

Mr Gove insisted the best solution is to instigate more order in schools through divulging authority to teachers, adding that it’s time to show rebellious kids “who's boss” because “the rules of the game have changed”.

“Let me be crystal clear, if any parent now hears a school say, 'Sorry, we can't physically touch the students', then that school is wrong. Plain wrong. The rules of the game have changed,” he said.

The Education minister went on to add that exaggerated regulations inhibited teacher’s judgment and mention implementing a “step-by-step” move of the “ratchet” back in teachers' favor.

“We need to ensure we send a single, consistent, message that teachers are there to be respected, listened to, obeyed,” Mr Gove stressed.

“Teachers possess the knowledge that pupils should aspire to acquire, they have committed themselves to serve others, which is the virtue our society should most prize, and unless their authority is absolute in the classroom then they cannot teach and children cannot learn.”

The reforms include lowering the threshold for truancy, as figures expose that more than 430,000 children were absent for 15% of school time, while over a million pupils missed 10% of the academic year.

In addition, teachers will be allowed to dish out detention without the need of issuing 24 hours' notice - a requisite that is enforced currently.

Mr Gove blamed the Labour government for stripping teachers off “effective powers to search students for items which can cause disruption in class”.

“This summer we saw how mobile technology can be used to coordinate widespread disruption and violence,” he said. 
“But there are some in the Lords who think this power to prevent disruption undermines children's rights. I think nothing could be further from the truth.

“Stopping the smuggling of Blackberries into classrooms safeguards children's rights – the crucial rights of the majority to learn in peace, free of the fear of violence and intimidation.”
He said that the on-going legislation going through parliament could change things for the better, as teachers would be given control to stop students using mobile phones, flip video cameras and Blackberries to record disruption and post details online.
However, he acknowledged that schools need to embrace technology for “fruitful learning” purposes.
Mr Gove said: “When you enter a school environment it has to be ordered for fruitful learning
“We have to go much further in developing IT learning”

While Shadow education secretary Andy Burnham criticized the government policies for “making it much harder for the next generation to get on in life,” Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, welcomed Mr Gove's reforms.

He said: “The use of physical restraint is thankfully required very rarely in schools. On occasions where it is needed, detailed guidance exists and staff fully understand the need to follow it to the letter. Schools already keep records of breaches of discipline.”