An estimated 2000 primary school children received suspension as a disciplinary action against serious offenses in 2011, and 75 of them were formally expelled.

In many cases the disciplinary action was a last resort by desperate principals - not designed to teach the child a lesson but to get help for them or protect other students following violent, antisocial and occasionally sexually motivated behaviour.

Figures released to the Herald under the Official Information Act reveal that in the 11 months to November more than 21,000 school students faced serious disciplinary action.

The New Zealand Herald obtained data under the Official Information Act, which showed that 1,874 or around 94 per cent of the suspended or expelled students were aged under 10. The figure included 170 kids, who were five and six years old.

President Paul Drummond of the Principals' Federation told the Herald a primary school child will never be suspended over one-off offenses or minor child quarrels.

"Most schools would go to almost every other option before standing down or suspending any children in primary school - it's the absolute last resort but that tells you if a child that young has been stood down, then the reasons are serious and complex and they are often to do with that child's own safety and the safety of other children."

While the figures may shock some parents, the 2011 numbers were not far from the data recorded in 2001, when 1963 primary kids faced serious disciplinary action.

Meanwhile, Education Minister Hekia Parata said the Positive Behaviour for Learning Action plan was introduced in 2010 to address the "challenging behaviour in schools" as the figures on school misbehavior had been consistent for many years.

However, Mr. Drummond expressed alarm over the age of the offending children.

"Alarmingly, some of those children are getting younger," he said.

"It is not unheard of for children as young as 5 to be violent or have behaviour that you would not associate with young children," he said. "Not only are there the physical behaviours, there's the verbal behaviours and even sexual behaviours that are being presented in primary schools that perhaps you would not have associated with the times when you and I went to primary school."

Many of the problematic kids came from dysfunctional families, the Herald reported, noting schools would need extra resources or multi-agency support to better address the needs of the seriously misbehaving children.