TEACHERS may push and pull pupils to stop them fighting or vandalising property but they should only twist their arms and trip them up in exceptional cases. Guidelines issued by the Government yesterday detail how teachers may use reasonable force to restrain pupils. They aim to end the belief by many teachers that even touching pupils may lead to legal action. Instead, teachers are told they may use physical restraint not only if a pupil is likely to injure others but also if he or she refuses persistently to leave the classroom. Other examples of cases where they may use reasonable force include: pupils who run along a corridor in a way likely to cause accidents; serious disruptive behaviour in class and pupils who are at risk because they try to run away from school.Only in the most exceptional circumstances should teachers take action which might injure, such as slapping or punching, holding a pupil round the neck, twisting or forcing limbs against a joint, tripping them up or holding them by the hair. AFGHANISTAN, at the top of the Foreign Office danger list, could soon be welcoming British tourists again.
An adventure travel company has begun canvassing for clients for an "exploratory tour" of the country. Staff at the Foreign Office have condemned the move, but the organiser says the plan is simply responding to demand. The tour is being proposed by Hinterland Travel, based in Surrey. Its director, Geoff Hann, has been running overland trips since 1969, initially catering for travellers on the "hippie trail" to the East.
For a time he was a frequent visitor to Afghanistan - a country described in the first edition of the Travellers' Survival Kit to the East (1979) as "picturesque ... a strange mixture of the Middle Ages and the Wild West, with the 20th century fast infiltrating". Though the nation has been off limits to tourists for a decade, Hinterland's brochure invites interested travellers to enlist for an exploratory tour. Mr Hann last visited Afghanistan 15 years ago, after the Soviet invasion but before its disintegration into civil war He feels the time is right to return "I'm aching to go again. Last November I met a couple of Germans who had just come back. They had no problems."The holiday is likely to last two weeks, entering overland from Pakistan instead of flying in to the capital, Kabul.
