More than 100 students were suspended from West Australian public schools every day on average across 2023, new data shows, accounting for a total of 6.4 per cent of enrolments for the year.
The Department of Education’s 2023-24 annual report, released on Wednesday, revealed 21,565 students were suspended from school – an average of about 108 per day – while 163 students were excluded. Both were a significant increase on 2022 figures.
The report highlighted that in July 2023 the department launched a plan, Standing Together Against Violence, to address violence in schools and outlined procedures to escalate matters, including the targeted use of suspensions and exclusions.
It was hinted this was part of the reason for escalating numbers.
Curtin University School of Education senior lecturer Saul Karnovsky said there was more to the story than what the figures showed.
“I would suspect that the number of suspensions is actually far under what needs to happen,” he said.
“The paperwork attached to reporting violent or threatening behaviours is too onerous and teachers would never stop working if they reported every incident, so they are let go instead. Only the most extreme cases are actually reported.”
Karnovsky said the average of 108 students suspended per day lined up with a statistic from the State School Teachers’ Union WA’s Facing the Facts report, which found there was a violence-based incident at WA public schools every 45 minutes.
He said escalating violent behaviours were the top reason for teacher attrition rates.
WA Primary Principals’ Association president Niel Smith said the problem was also growing in primary schools.
“School principals have recorded an increase in aggression and violent acts on their schools sites, but this is a reflection of what is happening across society with an increase in violence, aggression, inappropriate social media use and the things that children are exposed to at a younger age,” he said.
“Whilst the minister for education has taken a stand against violence in schools and given schools the authority to move towards exclusion for serious acts of violence, school principals tend to use this as a last resort.
“Schools alone can’t be left to manage this issue.”
But as suspension numbers continue to escalate, student attendance rates have improved.
More than 55 per cent of students attended school between 90 and 100 per cent of the time, while 25.5 per cent attended between 80 and 90 per cent of the time.
For Aboriginal students, the figures were 24.5 and 21.8 per cent, respectively.
Students continue to use the department’s Alternative Learning Settings – facilities with support programs for students who have been excluded or are at risk of being excluded for complex and challenging behaviours.
The program completed its planned expansion at the beginning of 2023 and operates across 12 sites. In 2023, 236 students participated, up from 170 in 2022.
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