New laws came into effect across England and Wales last Sunday giving teachers more power to restrain badly behaved children in and outside of the classroom.

Under the Education and Inspections Act 2006, teachers will even be able to use "reasonable force" to remove unruly pupils from the classroom or break up fights, and confiscate mobile phones and iPods.

The measures are part of ongoing efforts to stamp out the "Am I bovvered?" culture sweeping in over a sizeable proportion of Britain's school-going generation today, and Education Secretary Alan Johnson hopes the measures will help drive bad behaviour, truancy and violence out of classrooms.

They are not only a good first step towards tackling the scourge of bad behaviour in schools; they are also an encouraging swing away from the "child is always right" mentality that has seeped into schools in recent years.

The discipline powers will restore some of that lost authority to teachers and will reassure them that where some physical force is needed to restrain violent or abusive pupils they will not find themselves pulled before the courts on abuse charges. That must be a relief for the many good teachers struggling to cope with classroom wild childs.

It remains the case, however, that no matter how much power teachers are given to restrain unruly pupils, such measures do no more than stick a giant plaster over a seeping wound.