Pupils Freya Sloane, Maddie Malloy, and Isabelle Sloane, concentrate on their drawings at Watlington Primary School in Watlington, southern England
The Children's Commissioner of England's report suggests that children below the age of 7 going to primary schools should never be expelled. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

Hundreds of children get expelled from state-funded schools for the flimsiest of reasons. These include shabby dressing, not wearing proper uniform and weird hairstyle or nail colour.

Dr Maggie Atkinson, Children's Commissioner of England, said her eight-month-long research suggested that many schools were carrying out illegal expulsions of pupils from schools.

The report also sees targeting of children based on creed, colour and religion.

According to a report by the Children's Commissioner of England, 5,740 children were permanently excluded from state-funded schools in 2009-10 and 179,800 young people were excluded on a fixed-term basis at least once during that year.

Some children missed out a week or more due to expulsion, as their parents found it hard to make time and meet the teacher, while the teacher insisted on meeting them before taking the child back in class, reported Yahoo news.

In primary schools alone, some 620 children were expelled, including 220 under-sevens, the report found.

Dr Atkinson demanded that steps be taken to place a permanent ban on expulsion of students in primary schools and all children below the age of seven, according to the Telegraph.

In a strongly worded message to school boards, she said students cannot be expelled or suspended for "minor infringements" because it can damage their education and push them into a life of crime. Half of young offenders in custody had been excluded at some point or the other in the past.

John Connolly, Dr Atkinson's Principal Policy Adviser for Education, insisted that the advice on school uniform did not amount to condoning defiant behaviour by students. He said: "We are not saying don't have uniform, we are not saying don't have rules about personal appearance; what we are saying is do not remove education for those reasons," according to the Express.

The only reason students should be made to miss school is in cases of emergency and is mandatorily for safety reasons, Dr Atkinson said.

School administrators felt the right of expulsion was best left to teachers and heads depending on the situation. Brian Lightman, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: "There are already very strict rules around exclusions but it must be for heads to decide when it is appropriate."