4/30/2008 8:33:00 AM
Leader; Daily Telegraph 30 April
Figures released yesterday showing the percentage of children in state schools not having English as their first language to be at an all-time high might be shocking, but they are scarcely surprising.Some 14.4 per cent of primary pupils now come from non-English-speaking homes - a figure that has doubled since 1997.In inner London, the proportion is a staggering 53.6 per cent of all pupils.Given that this Government has made no attempt to control the numbers of migrants entering the country, and particularly that it wildly underestimated the migration from EU accession countries, it was only to be expected that the likely impact of non-English-speaking children on the school system would be overlooked.Even now that the full statistical consequences are clear, the Government seems to have no systematic policy for dealing with it.The schools minister, Jim Knight, utters platitudinous reassurance on the familiar Labour theme: record amounts of money have been invested in schools, and teacher numbers are the highest in a generation. And yet, he has to admit, "there is an issue" for some areas and some schools.Teachers' representatives give out similarly contradictory messages.Telegraph
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