More young students in our public schools are being suspended, according to latest Education Department data

Figures show a significant rise in the number of young primary school students being suspended, but it’s a different story for teens. Search the data.

Time-poor parents who don’t prepare their children for starting school are partly to blame for soaring numbers of junior primary students being suspended, principals say.

And as Education Department figures show the problem flows through the primary years, one expert says the pressure schools feel to do well in NAPLAN tests is forcing them to focus on academic over social and emotional learning.

Behaviour statistics for public schools – always a snapshot of Term 2 alone – show 192 boys aged 4-6 were suspended in that term last year, up 73 per cent from 111 in 2012.

Numbers of girls from that age group suspended rose from 13 to 35 over that period.

SA Primary Principals Association president Angela Falkenberg said growing numbers of children were starting school without the skills to cope in the classroom, throwing tantrums and unable “to wait a turn or persist with a task”.

Ms Falkenberg said time-poor parents were part of the problem, questioning how many were taking little ones to playgroups for appropriate socialisation in the years before school.

She said once children started school, the key to helping them thrive was positive relationships between schools and parents, so goals were consistent between the classroom and home.

Term 2 suspensions of boys aged 7-9 rose from 439 to 605 from 2012-19, and for those aged 10-12, from 673 to 852.

For girls in the 7-9 age group suspensions leapt from 66 to 111, and from 140 to 203 for the 10-12 age group.

Flinders University senior lecturer Grace Skrzypiec said students’ inability to “self-regulate” their emotions was a huge issue.

“The way it is now with two parents working, it can be easy for parents to miss the socialisation that we expect them to do with their children,” she said.

Dr Skrzypiec attributed a rise in classroom behavioural issues to teachers placing more emphasis on academics.

“(In) those formative young years, it used to be the case that teachers were looking out for their students’ wellbeing,” Dr Skrzypiec said.

“Now there is less time for them to do that because they are seeking to make sure that their students do well in NAPLAN.”

But Dr Skrzypiec questioned the value of suspending primary students, saying often the children spent the time at home playing games online so didn’t view it as a punishment.

While suspensions of primary students have risen, they have dramatically dropped among students aged 13 and above, from 2424 to 1936 from 2012-19.

Dr Skrzypiec said that was because high schools had become more nurturing.

A department spokesman said the State Government had commissioned an independent review into the use of suspensions, including the reasons behind any changes in statistics.

“The government has committed to making the report public,” he said.