English 'a foreign language in London's schools'

Those who speak English as their first language are the minority in inner city areas of the capital.

Nationally, one in five primary pupils are now from an ethnic minority, which means that non-English speakers are in the majority in many schools.

Headteachers are having to accommodate pupils, not just from traditional immigration hotspots such as Pakistan and Bangladesh but also more recent arrivals from Eastern Europe.

A huge increase in students from countries such as Poland is leaving some councils with massive bills to fund extra support such as interpreters.

Government figures obtained by the Tories show that London has the highest proportion of primary and secondary school pupils speaking English as a second language.

In 348 of inner London's 695 primaries, at least half of pupils do not have English as a mother tongue.

Inner London's 132 secondary schools are also experiencing large demographic changes, with more than half of pupils in 53 of them speaking English as their second language.

In outer London, more than one in four primary schools (248 out of 1,136) has at least half of pupils not speaking English as a first language. In secondary schools, the figure is one in five (50 out of 269).

This compares to the North West where a majority of pupils speak a different language at home in just 119 out of 2,581 primary schools.

The figures are similarly low in the East Midlands (51 out of 1,708 primaries) and the East of England (27 out of 2,065).

Overall, one in 16 primary schools across the country (1,080 out of 17,504) has more than 50 per cent of pupils speaking English as a second language.

Conservative leader David Cameron has already called for English to become more widespread among immigrant families.

And the Tories used the school figures to call for urgent action to tackle racial segregation in inner cities.

Tory education spokesman David Willetts, who asked the parliamentary question, said the government risked creating 'ghettos of the future' unless the government tackled the issue.

He said: 'It's tough to teach high-quality education when more than half of your pupils don't have English as their first language.

'There is a real danger that we are creating the ghettos of the future and we have got to be aware of the problems that teachers face in such situations.'

He said that some schools spend too long teaching pupils in their native language rather than forcing them to use English.

'There has been what I would call on extreme form of multiculturalism,' he said.

'We have got to get them speaking English as fast as possible, as young as possible. It's a great pity that the government's current investigations into multiculturalism don't seem to include English and schooling.'

Mr Willetts said the Tories were looking at giving extra funding to headteachers outside London who take on ethnic minority pupils from the capital.

Meanwhile latest figures from the Department for Education and Skills show that one in eight primary school pupils across the country speak English as a second language.

There are now 419,600 primary pupils speaking other languages at home, a rise of 42,000 on last year, and 314,950 secondary pupils, an increase of 16,000, representing almost one in ten.