MORE than 40 children are being expelled from state schools every day in England, government figures released today show.

Some 7,720 students were expelled in the 2016-17 school year, an increase of nearly 1,000 pupils from the year before. The vast majority of these expulsions — 83 per cent — were in secondary schools.

While persistent disruption remains the main reason for the exclusions, there has also been a rise in exclusions for sexual “misconduct,” racist abuse, and physical and verbal assaults.

After the figures were revealed, progressive think tank IPPR said that expelled children educated in Pupil Referral Units (PRU) are nearly three times more likely to have an unqualified teacher.

Tottenham Labour MP David Lammy said these children are far more likely to end up in the criminal justice system.

He said: “Action to address the quiet social apartheid of school exclusions is well overdue.

“The relationship between PRUs and the criminal justice system has become symbiotic and the rise of exclusions is creating a pipeline of young people into our prison system.

“There is no fiscal or moral case to continue like this.”

On Twitter, he added that the 15 per cent increase in exclusions would further fuel the number of “vulnerable recruits for criminals to exploit.”

School standards minister Nick Gibb said that permanent exclusions should be a “last resort” for disciplining pupils and said that the government supports teachers acting in “proportionate” ways to ensure good behaviour.

However, teachers and school leaders have suggested the increase was down to a squeeze on school budgets and cuts to children’s services.

Association of School and College Leaders general secretary Geoff Barton said that schools are struggling to prevent behavioural problems from escalating because of cutbacks on individual support for students.

“At the same time council support services for vulnerable families have been cut back, meaning that schools are having to pick up the pieces,” he added.

National Association of Head Teachers general secretary Paul Whiteman said that “school budgets are at breaking point,” meaning that measures to ensure good behaviour and pupil support are “under threat.”

The Department for Education (DfE) statistics also reveal that more than 2,000 students are suspended every school day.

English state schools registered 381,865 suspensions in total in 2016-17, averaging approximately 2,010 a day and an increase of more than 42,000 from the previous year.