UK: English a minority language in 1,300 schools

[Harold Schiffman]

English a minority language in 1,300 schools
By James Kirkup, Political Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:06pm GMT 17/12/2007



Children with English as their first language are now in the minority
in more than 1,300 schools, according to official figures. Top 30
areas where English is in the minority The Daily Telegraph has
obtained data from the Department for Children, Schools and Families
illustrating the impact of high levels of immigration on the education
system.  The figures show that in a total of 1,338 primary and
secondary schools - more than one in 20 of all schools in England -
children with English as their first language are in the minority.
In 600 of these schools, fewer than a third of pupils speak English as
their first language.

The disclosure led to warnings that the rising number of foreign
pupils without a decent grasp of English was putting intense pressure
on teachers and undermining education standards. The figures have
fuelled demands from teachers' leaders for more money to help meet the
costs of teaching foreign-born children. Teachers' unions said
educating a single non-English-speaking pupil could cost as much as
£30,000 a year. Coping with large numbers of foreign children risked
undermining the quality of teaching given to all pupils, they said.
Philip Parkin, the general secretary of the Professional Association
of Teachers, said rising levels of immigration and a lack of
multi-lingual teaching staff were "providing serious challenges" for
schools trying to maintain standards.

Dealing with non-English- speaking children "makes it much harder to
deliver the curriculum", Mr Parkin said."Schools that are in that
position need considerable support in order to give those children
help with English and help with our curriculum. "The Government needs
to be looking at funding the employment of teachers or teaching
assistants, in addition to the staff they have, who are bilingual or
multilingual." Last month, the National Association of Head Teachers
said some schools were struggling to cope with the influx of foreign
pupils.

Mick Brookes, the union's general secretary, told a Lords committee
that the situation was "out of control". A rush of migrants into an
area can "strain or even break the resources of the school", he said.
Last night, Mr Brookes said the latest figures proved the case for
putting additional resources into the areas dealing with large numbers
of non-English speakers. "There are children who cannot speak the
language," he said. "Others are refugees who may have witnessed some
horrible things. "These children may not just need support to speak
English, but often they require counselling to talk them through the
trauma they have witnessed." Data from the Department for Children,
Schools and Families show that in 574 of the 17,361 primary schools in
England, children without English as a first language make up between
51 and 70 per cent of all pupils.

Another 569 primaries have more than 70 per cent who count English as
a second language. In 112 of the 3,343 secondary schools, children
without English as a first language make up 51 to 70 per cent of all
pupils. In another 83 secondary schools, the proportion is above 70
per cent. The total number of schools where pupils with a first
language other than English make up at least 51 per cent of the
population is 1,338. Following patterns of immigration, children who
do not speak English as a first language are heavily concentrated in
certain areas of the country, especially London. The 20 councils with
the highest concentration of non-English speaking children are in
London.

In the borough of Newham, nine out of 10 schools have a non-English
first language majority. The same is true of a third of schools in
Leicester and in Blackburn, and a quarter of schools in Birmingham.
Gordon Brown last week repeated calls for immigrants to learn English,
but critics say he is not doing enough to fund proper language
teaching for immigrant children. David Davis, the Conservative shadow
home secretary, accused the Government of failing to meet the costs of
its immigration policy. "We have been warning the Government for years
now of the consequences for schools of the very high rate of
immigration," he said. "This shows how many schools will face real
difficulties."

The Government said last night that it was properly funding schools
facing extra costs from children struggling with English.

A DCSF spokesman said: "We have listened to the unions' concerns and
are increasing funding in the Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant to
£206 million by 2010.

"We have also introduced new guidance for teachers to work with new
arrivals. There's actually surplus money in the school system to deal
with any 'exceptional circumstances'."

But even Labour MPs have expressed concern that the Government is
failing to keep up with immigration.

Phyllis Starkey, the Labour chairman of the communities and local
government committee of MPs, last week warned Mr Brown that funding
delays risked inflaming "community conflict".

Many of the pupils without English as their first language are the
children of the 600,000 eastern Europeans who have come to Britain
since the European Union's eastward expansion in 2004.

Official statistics last week showed that one in five births in
Britain last year was to a woman from overseas.



Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph
Media Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without
licence. For the full copyright statement see Copyright

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/17/nschool117.xml
-- 
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to
its members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner
or sponsor of
the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who
disagree with a
message are encouraged to post a rebuttal. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)
*******************************************