Schoolbags should be searched to try and cut the number of schoolchildren abusing alcohol, a teaching union said today.

A total of 360 pupils were suspended during a five-year period because of drink, an Assembly written answer said.

NASUWT union regional organiser Seamus Searson said there should be thorough checks where a problem is suspected.

"If a child gets expelled from school that is very serious and the onus is on parents to make sure children know what is right and wrong and drinking to excess isn't a right thing for any minor to be doing," he said.

He said there needed to be more co-operation between parents and schools.

"What schools need to do is identify systems when there are concerns about a child and that they raise those concerns early," he added.

"We have always agreed that some random checks have to be made on schoolbags, also for things like cigarettes, schools should have regular bag checks."

Mr Searson claimed some young people were taking their behaviour at the weekends into the classroom.

"There's a lot of peer pressure to do these things within school. The children see this as an opportunity to take as much drink as they can stand."

He said it could lead to boisterous behaviour or being sick in school.

"It is the same sort of things that appear once someone has had a few drinks on a Friday night," he added.

A total of 360 secondary school pupils were suspended because of alcohol abuse during the last five years, figures released by Education Minister Caitriona Ruane to SDLP MLA Thomas Burns revealed.

The statistics cover the academic years from 2003/04 to 2007/08 but no details are available on whether the pupils involved were under the influence of alcohol on their school premises.

Mr Burns said he was shocked.

"If children are getting so drunk on a regular basis it is affecting their schooling then serious action needs to be taken by both head teachers and the parents. Harsh discipline needs to be brought to bear both inside and outside the school," he said.

Gary McMichael, director of Ascert, a drug and alcohol charity helping young people and families, said schools needed to support pupils.

"Suspension from school we hope would not be the first option... what other kind of help can be provided, what support can be provided to the young person?

"What we don't want is to isolate them in the future by expelling them from school, which is a very important support environment."