The Island's chief education officer is looking into reports of a serious breakdown in pupil discipline at one of the Island's primary schools.

Mr. Dean Furbert's investigation was launched after teachers at East End School found they were spending more time "baby sitting'' than teaching unruly students.

One teacher said there was a growing disposition among pupils to simply disobey. Teachers were so concerned they held staff meetings to figure out how to break the trend.

"One of the comments I hear is there is very little learning going on here because the teachers are baby sitting,'' one teacher said. "They're spending too much time handling misbehaviour and rudeness.

"It's worse this year than ever. The situation got so bad that I've thought several times of quitting. I thought it just was me, but then I talked with others and found they too were going through it.

"These are dedicated teachers, some with 10 and 14 years experience.'' One teacher said she considered it a good day if she got through three of five items on her agenda.

She said the pupils' misbehaviour was initiated by old pupils and picked up by younger ones. The problem students were aged between nine and 12.

"You give them a command and they won't do it,'' the teacher said.

The teachers' concerns grew to the point that they held a meeting to "air their grievances''.

Soon after school principal Mrs. Sheila Johnson invited Mr. Furbert for a visit. Last night, Mr. Furbert downplayed the situation.

"I chose to visit East End to support the principal and staff and to address the concerns they expressed,'' he said. "It is a very competent staff. The same is true of the principal.

"As far as discipline is concerned you could probably find expressions of that same concern in any other school. Discipline is an ongoing problem and an increasing concern throughout the school system.'' He said he didn't see anything very unusual at East End.

He said in his meetings with the staff he tried to help them focus their attentions "to improve the overall climate of the school''.

Mr. Furbert said there would be renewed staff emphasis on consistency in disciplinary treatment.

Yesterday, Mrs. Johnson said she was disappointed teachers had talked about the discipline problem outside of school.

"We have had a problem in the past with difficult children as any other school has,'' she said. "The problem here us that because of the small size of the school, the problem gets magnified.'' Mrs. Johnson said the problem was not chronic.

"The situation is in hand. We started September very nicely. We're dealing with the problem.''