Mathematicians, of course, were also faced with the wave of expulsions of Jews from the profession.
There have been further expulsions since then, most recently of an evangelical Spanish teacher.
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The expulsions "expressed our horror at the behaviour" of the Syrian government, Mr Hague added.
Boys accounted for more than eight out of 10 expulsions and 62% involved 13, 14 and 15 year olds.
After it fell to within 200 of that line in 2001, his successor, Estelle Morris, abandoned further targets for reducing expulsions.
Under former Education Secretary David Blunkett, the government ordered schools to reduce the number of expulsions by a third by September 2002.
The latest expulsions came as Vice President Nicolas Maduro and challenger Henrique Capriles registered as candidates to succeed Mr Chavez.
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki confirmed Tehran was looking at relations with the UK following the tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions.
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Expulsions of children aged five to 11 increased slightly from 1, 436 to 1, 450, while the secondary permanent exclusion figures rose to 7, 740 from 7, 305.
Moscow's refusal to extradite Lugovoi after the killing sparked a round of expulsions of diplomats and has long soured its relations with London.
The cases came to light recently when the local Straits Times newspaper reported how some of the expulsions had separated children from parents.
The Supreme Court said the military had to prove why the expulsions were necessary, and gave the relevant authorities 15 days to do so.
Mr Djindjic said early elections were possible if the expulsions did not work and parliament could not function due to the lack of a quorum.
Bernard Kouchner, the foreign minister, who comes from the political left, has said that he almost quit over the Romani expulsions, and could now step down.
That allowed the committee to catch these three athletes this year in the first high-profile Olympic drug expulsions since Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson was caught in 1988.
Added to this, 74% wanted final decisions concerning expulsions of violent and disruptive pupils to rest with head teachers, rather than appeals panels, as is currently the case.
BBC: NEWS | UK | Education | Fewer children banned from school
According to the statement, other expulsions will occur soon.
It said those asked to leave were being given a grant, "which can help those concerned to re-enter social and professional life", and that expulsions to Romania were being carefully co-ordinated with the government there.
Despite the expulsions, Syria "stresses the importance of dialogue based on principles of equality and mutual respect between nations, and diplomacy is the necessary vehicle to connect with countries to resolve conflicts between countries, and pending issues, " the Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
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The government would do better to look at ways of staggering the school terms throughout the country and imposing restrictions on the discrepancies between the lowest and highest prices charged by the holiday countries than threats of fines to the parents and expulsions to the pupils.
BBC: NEWS | UK | Education | Girl expelled over term holiday
Arguably in violation of the legally binding decision she had herself crafted, Livni, together with Sharon, claimed that national security considerations overrode the stipulations of the decision and therefore Sharon was within his rights to order that the expulsions be carried out in one operation that lasted a less than a week.
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