This was almost half of what it was before the pandemic.
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) research issues a warning, stating that children—especially those from lower-income families—are not receiving the education they need.
Compared to their classmates, those who get free school meals have a four times higher chance of being suspended and a nearly five times higher chance of being permanently expelled.
This new analysis examines more current data up to Easter this year and finds that, despite 2022–2023 representing the highest numbers of exclusions and suspensions ever recorded, the trend has increased by a further 20%.
The report highlights “unaccountable” methods of child absence, including controlled transfers between schools and segregation of disruptive students, wherein they are removed from the classroom and sometimes left unsupervised, in addition to an increase in documented exclusions.
The CEO of education nonprofit The Difference and IPPR associate fellow Kiran Gill stated: “Children’s learning loss has alarmingly increased over the last four years following the pandemic.
