A meat cleaver, a machete and a dagger are among a staggering haul of weapons seized from South Australian public schools — a confronting snapshot of what’s being stashed in students’ bags.

The alarming discoveries have sparked fresh calls for police to scan schoolbags at random — inside school grounds — in a bid to stop knives making it into classrooms.

WATCH ABOVE: Dozens of weapons seized from school students.

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Laid out together, the seized weapons paint a worrying picture: daggers, machetes and even a meat cleaver, all confiscated in the past 12 months.

“It’s a concern to me and the state government to see those,” South Australian education minister Blair Boyer told 7NEWS.

In total, 39 knives have been seized in the past year — 18 of them used to either injure or threaten someone. That’s roughly one a week during the school year.

Despite new police powers allowing officers to use metal detectors in shopping centres, those laws do not extend to classrooms.

Daggers and kitchen knives have been confiscated from public school students Credit: 7NEWS

And while it’s now illegal to sell a knife to anyone under 18, many of the weapons found in schools are everyday kitchen knives — likely taken from home.

Staff currently have no authority to search students’ bags unless there is an immediate threat.

It’s why some are now pushing for airport‑style metal detectors, similar to those rolled out across schools in the UK and US, to stop weapons before they ever reach a desk.