17,000 pupils suspended every year

Almost 17,000 pupils are suspended every year with another 150 students expelled from schools, it emerged today.

New figures revealed while expulsions and suspensions were rare at primary level, students in post-primary schools were 20 times more likely to be suspended.

The National Educational Welfare Board’s (NEWB) showed 15,915 teenagers were suspended from a range of secondary schools in the academic year 2007/08 – while 1,143 primary pupils were disciplined in the same way.

Elsewhere 136 secondary school students and 15 primary pupils were expelled.

The NEWB said the analysis of attendance data, compiled by David Millar of the Educational Research Centre in Dublin’s St Patrick’s College, was a very useful benchmark.

“Non-attendance at school is a strong indicator of overall child welfare and a determinant of education outcomes,” said a spokesperson.

“Combating the issues underlying poor attendance requires concerted action and close collaboration among schools, school support services and other stakeholders involved with children, young people and their families.”

Some 95% of primary schools and 91% of post-primary facilities responded to survey which calculated attendance from the academic years 2006/07 to 2007/08.

Monitoring non-attendance, expulsion and suspension in schools at a national level it found:

- Over 57,000 students miss school daily, made up of approximately 31,500 primary and 26,000 post-primary students.

- The figure equated to a loss of 12 school days per student per year in primary school and 13 days in post-primary school.

- Being absent for 20 days or more remained high, affecting about 12% of primary school students – 58,000 – and 17% of post-primary students – 57,000.

- Absenteeism, suspensions and expulsions were highest in disadvantaged schools in the scheme (DEIS) Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools.

- The number of suspensions were also high in vocational schools (7.4%), followed by community and comprehensive schools (6.9%) and then traditional secondary schools (4.5%).

- Rates of non-attendance were higher in special schools and in urban areas.

- Elsewhere the rates of non attendance was similar to schools in the North, England, Scotland and Wales.