Teachers are having to cope with a growing influx of immigrant children who cannot speak English, official figures have revealed. The number of pupils joining schools shortly after arriving from overseas has jumped 50 per cent in two years.
The figures – based on analysis of GCSE league tables – suggest that at least 20,000 immigrant children have joined primaries and secondaries during the last academic year.
Mick Brookes, of the National Association of Head Teachers, said schools needed more specialist staff to cope. “This is yet another indication that we have a growing issue here,” he added. “There is huge turbulence in schools, particularly with immigrant children.” He said the fact that so many pupils arrived in the middle of the year was disruptive, with friendship groups already formed and classwork under way.
Nearly 2,000 pupils were removed from last year’s GCSE league tables at their teachers’ request because they had recently arrived from overseas and did not speak English at home. The figure was 50 per cent up on 2005. Schools Minister Jim Knight said: “Individual schools can ask for pupils recently arrived from overseas, including the children of refugees and asylum seekers whose first language is not English, to be removed from their own achievement and attainment results – we ask for clear evidence before agreeing to this.”
If the numbers were similar for other year groups, about 20,000 immigrant pupils who do not speak English would have joined schools during the 2006/07 academic year.
The proportion of pupils in England whose first language was not English rose from 9 per cent in 2003 to 12 per cent last year.
The document also said that asylum- seeking children from Afghanistan, Iran, Eritrea, China and Somalia were at the top of the list of school applicants.
Loading ...
