First rise in classroom expulsions for five years

Expulsions from school have gone up by 11 per cent, the first rise in five years, figures revealed yesterday.

The Department for Education and Skills said 9,210 pupils were expelled in 2001 compared to 8,323 in 2000.

Estelle Morris, the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, said she was "not too upset" about the increase.

"There has got to be a clear message to young people that behaviour is important," she told BBC Radio Four's Today programme. "If boundaries are crossed, consequences take place."

Ms Morris rang the headteacher of Wharrier Street primary school in Walker, Newcastle, yesterday to offer her support for the exclusion of 12 pupils on the grounds that they were guilty of violent and racist behaviour. One 11-year-old girl was expelled from the school for hitting a teacher.

The call was to underline that ministers back a crackdown on violenceafter years in which government targets to reduce exclusion figures put schools under pressure to keep unruly children. Ministers had moved to reduce exclusions after they soared to an all-time high of 12,700. Union leaders warned that yesterday's figures showed the difficulties teachers faced in tackling unacceptable behaviour. David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said they "reflect the reality of rising levels of pupil violence, disruption and abuse".

"Nobody should rejoice at today's figures," he said. "But it is far better for heads to be strongly supported in their defence of decent education standards than to be subjected to ridiculously artificial and damaging reduction targets."

The figures showed the highest percentage increase in exclusions was among primary school pupils. Nearly 100 five-year-olds were excluded from school in 2000-01.

They also revealed black pupils were three times more likely to be expelled than white – although this is a slight improvement upon figures from Ofsted, the Government's education standards watchdog, earlier this year, which showed black pupils were four times more likely to be excluded.

A report by the Institute of Public Policy Research, published today, called for more efforts to employ ethnic minority teachers. Education experts agree the move would give black pupils more role models.

The report showed that the number of ethnic minority teachers employed by schools was low and that they also found it more difficult to obtain promotion. Only two per cent became heads, compared with 5.2 per cent of white teachers.

The report called on the Government's Teacher Training Agency to increase its targets for recruiting ethnic minority teachers to "between 10 and 15 per cent" to rectify the imbalance.

* Ofsted has dropped an investigation into Emmanuel City Technology College in Gateshead, where leading scientists claimed the school was promoting the theory of creationism in science lessons in contravention of the national curriculum. Ofsted has said it is satisfied that the school's teaching is in line with the demands of the curriculum.