SCHOOLCHILDREN lost a record 32 million days of learning due to unauthorised absence and exclusions in 2022/23, a new report says.

The figure is a massive 72 per cent higher than 2018/19, the last school year before the pandemic, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and The Difference study found.

It comes as the proportion of secondary pupils getting suspended or expelled is expected rise by a fifth this year.

The report estimated permanent exclusions from last year’s cohort will cost the state £1.6 billion in social and economic costs.

A lack of state provision for children who leave mainstream education has seen a 56 per cent rise in them ending up in doubly expensive privately run services since the pandemic, with costs at least £111,000 a year per child. 

The report also found children who get free school meals are nearly five times more likely to be permanently excluded and four times more likely to be suspended than their peers.

The poorest areas of England have the highest rates of lost learning through unauthorised absences and suspensions, with  Middlesbrough’s 28 per cent suspension rate being the worst at three times the national average.

Children known to social services, those with school-identified special educational needs (SEN) and/or mental ill health, and children from ethnic minority backgrounds also disproportionately experience miss learning.

IPPR associate fellow and chief executive of The Difference Kiran Gill said: “The past four years, post-pandemic, have seen an alarming rise in children losing learning.

“We should all be worried about the social injustice that the most marginalised children — who already have the biggest barriers to opportunity outside of school — are those most likely to be not in classrooms through absence, suspension and exclusion.”

National Education Union general secretary Daniel Kebede called for a “real commitment to change the woeful” situation left by Tory cuts on pastoral and SEN and disabilities support in schools.

He said: “Addressing the soaring rates of child poverty is also imperative.

“No child can learn or engage in their education while hungry and worried.”

NASUWT national official for education Darren Northcott said: “Opportunities to prevent children from falling out of the education system are being missed and this is damaging the lives of a significant cohort of young people.”