The problem of what to do with disruptive pupils has so far presented schools and education chiefs with a real dilemma. Should they be kept in the school and persevered with, taking up a disproportionate amount of teachers' time and possibly holding back their fellow pupils because of their bad behaviour? Or should they be excluded from the schools system to either be educated privately or be allocated one of the limited number of places in a special referral unit?

Neither of these options is ideal. The first can put an unacceptable burden on the school, the second removes the disruptive pupils entirely from the mainstream education from which, with some expert help, they might benefit.

The proposal for a network of special teaching units across the Bradford district seems to offer the best of both worlds both for the troubled children and for their schools. The idea of keeping them on the school roll rather than cutting them adrift by permanently excluding them, while sending them for special tuition at one of several new specialised units, will greatly extend the work already being done at some schools by on-site learning support units for difficult pupils.

The £1.5 million scheme, under which every Bradford secondary school will have access to one of five new units, is intended to get pupils with various problems back on to the rails and into their mainstream school again.

It is a far better approach to have schools working together to cope with their problem pupils than is the present system, which can lead to too many children virtually being written off educationally.