The Na­tion­al Par­ent Teacher As­so­ci­a­tion (NPTA) has ex­pressed con­cern over the con­duct of Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment dur­ing Fri­day’s Stand­ing Fi­nance Com­mit­tee meet­ing, say­ing the ex­changes sent the wrong mes­sage to young peo­ple and un­der­mined ef­forts to ad­dress in­dis­ci­pline in schools.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day, the NPTA said it viewed with “deep con­cern and con­ster­na­tion” the events that un­fold­ed dur­ing the com­mit­tee meet­ing, which was marked by heat­ed ex­changes and shout­ing among MPs.

The as­so­ci­a­tion said the in­ci­dent over­shad­owed the com­mit­tee’s work and de­tract­ed from the dig­ni­ty ex­pect­ed of Par­lia­ment.

“The heat­ed ex­changes and shout­ing across the aisle among Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment cer­tain­ly over­shad­owed the im­por­tant busi­ness be­fore the com­mit­tee and left a stain on the dig­ni­ty and deco­rum ex­pect­ed of the na­tion’s high­est leg­isla­tive in­sti­tu­tion,” the state­ment said.

While ac­knowl­edg­ing that ro­bust de­bate and po­lit­i­cal ri­val­ry are part of par­lia­men­tary democ­ra­cy and the West­min­ster sys­tem, the NPTA said the be­hav­iour dis­played pub­licly was un­ac­cept­able.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion said it was par­tic­u­lar­ly trou­bled by the ex­am­ple be­ing set for chil­dren and young peo­ple.

“As an or­gan­i­sa­tion com­mit­ted to mold­ing our na­tion’s chil­dren and youth, we con­sid­er such be­hav­iours whol­ly in­con­sis­tent with re­spect, ci­vil­i­ty and mu­tu­al un­der­stand­ing that we seek to in­still in our next gen­er­a­tion,” the NPTA said.

The as­so­ci­a­tion added that lead­er­ship car­ries a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to mod­el ap­pro­pri­ate be­hav­iour and ex­er­cise re­straint.

“We are re­mind­ed that ‘to whom much is giv­en, much is re­quired’, which in­di­cates that lead­er­ship car­ries with it the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to demon­strate re­straint, ma­tu­ri­ty and ex­em­plary con­duct.”

The NPTA al­so linked the in­ci­dent to on­go­ing con­cerns about in­dis­ci­pline and bul­ly­ing in schools, warn­ing that pub­lic dis­plays of dis­or­der by na­tion­al lead­ers un­der­mine ef­forts to pro­mote pos­i­tive val­ues among stu­dents.

“As we con­tin­ue to ‘bat­tle’ with school in­dis­ci­pline and bul­ly­ing, such pub­lic dis­plays of dis­or­der se­ri­ous­ly un­der­mine the very val­ues we are striv­ing to in­cul­cate in our schools.

“Our stu­dents are watch­ing and they de­serve bet­ter from so­ci­ety and lead­er­ship fig­ures to whom they look for men­tor­ship and who sig­nif­i­cant­ly shape their un­der­stand­ing of ac­cept­able be­hav­iour,” the state­ment said.