Parents getting divorced could now be responsible for stopping their children from receiving a decent education.

A leading independent school headmaster has blamed family breakdown for creating more disciplinary problems in schools than either drugs or alcohol.

Chairman of this year's Headmasters' Conference, Patrick Tobin said most of the serious problems seem to come from broken homes.

"Virtually every time the schools were up against a problem of suspension or expulsion, they were dealing with a home breakdown," he said.

Mr Tobin, principal of Daniel Stewart's and Melville College, Edinburgh, sees a stable marriage as fundamental to the independent schools system.

"Where would independent schools be unless there were two parents out earning a living to afford the fees?"

Do you think divorce can be blamed for a child's behavioural problems at school? Should it be the school's responsibility to solve this problem, or the parents?

Mr Tobin said it was unrealistic to expect schools to deal with the consequences of major social problems.

He called for the government to help, but remained sceptical about their intentions to support family values.

He was speaking a week after the Prime Minister Tony Blair promised a green paper on the family, declaring stable family life to be one of the building blocks of society.

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