By REBECCA WALSH education reporter
New rules have failed to stem a wave of student suspensions, latest Ministry of Education statistics show.
Around the country there were 5108 suspensions and 16,921 stand-downs as a result of bad behaviour last year - a 5 to 6 per cent increase on the year from July 1999 to July 2000 when the new rules were introduced.
Drugs were the most common reason students were suspended (1553 cases), followed by continual disobedience (1216) and physical assaults on other students (803).
Education Minister Trevor Mallard said the increase - seven out of 1000 students were suspended - indicated the need for a more active approach to the problem.
This year the Government would spend $1 million on an initiative to reduce the number of students being suspended from school.
The main focus would be on reducing the high proportion of Maori students being suspended.
A further $2.1 million would be allocated each year.
The figures show that although Maori made up only 21 per cent of the population, they accounted for 47 per cent of suspensions.
Two-thirds of stand-downs and suspensions were for students aged 13 to 15.
Males made up 74 per cent of suspensions and stand-downs (in which students are sent home for up to five days without being formally suspended).
Mr Mallard said the Government initiative would target schools in Northland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty and East Coast/Hawkes Bay - areas with high rates of student suspensions.
"Schools will work in clusters that include schools with high as well as low suspension rates," he said.
"These clusters will be asked to work with their school communities to develop initiatives that they think will work in their respective areas."
Secondary school principals have welcomed the extra finance.
Kamo High School principal Richard Abel was keen to see the money channelled into programmes that would identify and help young people before they became another statistic.
Tom Robson, president of the Secondary Schools Principals Association, was in favour of any move to stop students opting out of school.
But he was worried that the Government was "throwing money at schools" and expecting them to find the answers, when it hadn't been able to itself.
The ministry was collecting information on how New Zealand's figures compared internationally.
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