DATA showing the number of students excluded and suspended from schools across Queensland has been published after being obtained under a Right to Information application.
The full document of more than 150 pages lists schools and reasons for the expulsion or suspension. The schools have been ranked by the media as an attempt to analyse the statistics.
What the document does not provide is any context around the raw data. For example, there is no mention of how many children attend each school. So a school with 2000 students may be compared to one with 500.
As pointed out by the Education Department when we tried to contextualise the statistics, the data contains the number of suspensions, not the number of students involved. Multiple suspensions could involve individual students.
One incident involving a group of students could cause a spike in the figures for the year and we are not comparing to statistics from previous years.
It also needs to be mentioned that schools have detailed behaviour management plans and students are being dealt with in numerous ways prior to be suspended or excluded from schools.
Illicit drugs and tobacco or legal substances are among the reasons for suspensions and exclusions, as are physical violence – in some cases using an object and in other cases not – and property misconduct.
At primary schools, problem behaviour that leads to exclusions and suspensions is particularly worrying. Senior students who are excluded may have an increased likelihood of engaging in anti-social behaviour.
But there are also increasing pressures on teachers and schools when students disrupt classes and threaten their peers and staff.
Most students in schools are well-behaved and their parents want them to receive the best education possible, without it being disrupted by unruly and violent behaviour.
While the public may not be privy to the detail around the students affected by disciplinary measures, the onus is on the department and school principals to ensure disciplinary measures are proving effective.
Consideration also needs to be given to trends in the type of misconduct, whether intervention strategies are being implemented early enough and whether support for staff dealing with these issues is sufficient.
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