THE British Prime Minister tried yesterday to calm the clamour about school discipline, insisting recent scandals did not represent widespread disorder.
Mr Major said: "The vast majority of pupils are well-behaved. The vast majority of schools are orderly places and we are determined they shall remain so."
Earlier yesterday, the prospect of a return to caning in British schools was raised and then dashed within a matter of three hours.
Mr Major stepped in and told the Education Secretary, Mrs Gillian Shephard, to make clear the government's position after she hinted that there might be scope for a return to corporal punishment.
A Downing Street spokesman said the prime minister had phoned Mrs Shephard and "in a good conversation" asked her "to make sure the position very clear".
The spokesman added that there was a range of views in the government about caning: "But the Government is not persuaded of its practicality. It is not going to put it in the Bill."
Pressed in the Commons about the troubled Ridings School in Halifax, West Yorkshire, Mr Major called for a sense of perspective on the state of Britain's schools.
A team of five inspectors arrived at the school earlier yesterday to begin an emergency investigation after teachers threatened to strike unless up to 60 "unteachable" pupils were expelled.