The number of school exclusions decreased by 11 per cent overall between 2006-07 and 2007-08, and the number of exclusions relating to physical assault decreased by 6 per cent over the same period.Elizabeth Smith will have seen the comments that were made by Ronnie Smith, the general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland, in The Herald on 3 March:"While we have problems with indiscipline, this tends to be low-level such as answering back rather than assaults."