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UK whites a minority in London classrooms
Dominic Hayes, Evening Standard28 Sep 2007
White British-born children are now the minority in many London schools, official figures showed today.
In Tower Hamlets, 15 per cent of primary school pupils are classed as white British, while 63 per cent of their classmates come from Bangladeshi families.
Tories said the figures, released by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, showed the changes were putting pressure on schools, which had to make sure those who did not speak English learned as soon as possible.
Conservative immigration spokesman Damian Green said: "If they can't, and they are being taught in overcrowded classrooms, this makes it much harder for teachers to do their job."
While Asians now make up the majority of young children in several areas of London, others remain overwhelmingly white.
In Newham, just under 12 per cent of primary pupils are white British, while the figure in Brent's secondaries is seven per cent, compared with 36 per cent who are classed as Asian, and 24 per cent black. Outside London, areas with the highest concentrations of ethnic minority pupils included Bradford, where 53 per cent of the primary school children are classed as white British.
In Blackburn and Manchester, less than 60 per cent of primary pupils were white British and in Birmingham the figure was 43 per cent. In Leicester, 41 per cent were white British, compared with 38 per cent of primary pupils who were Asian. Nationally, 21.9 per cent of primary school children were from ethnic minority backgrounds, up from 20.6 per cent last year. There was a similar rise in secondary schools.
In rural areas, the school population was almost entirely white. In Devon, 95 per cent of primary pupils were white British. The number of primary school pupils who do not speak English as their first language increased by about seven per cent on last year's figures to 447,000, or about one child in seven. Figures at secondary level showed a similar rise in pupils not speaking English as their first language to 342,000 in total.
When special schools are included, 798,110 pupils in England's state schools do not speak English as their first language. This is out of a total of 7.3 million children attending state schools. Schools minister Jim Knight said teachers were being given help to cope with children whose first language is not English.
Reader views (13)
I, for one, am glad to see that england and other european nations are having to deal with the same sorts of issues we americans have had to deal with for years now. we have a welfare system in place here where we are forced to hand over a portion of our paychecks to feed, house, and clothe "minorities" who make up the majority of many of our cities and towns. Welcome to our world, I hope you enjoy it as well as we do. =-]
- ralphie, richmond, va, 07/09/2011 22:55
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Yes Padraic Finn you did miss something !
the centuries of building the modern day Britain is falling apart in just a few decades
the middle east has been given the keys to our land to overthrow it from within
Yes Padraic Finn you did miss something and most of the spineless British fools did too - to the cost of losing their homeland - and that being the once GREAT Britian
astonishing and one of histories greatest tragedies.
- defender4uk, homeland, 09/11/2010 05:55
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What a sad thing to read. We have similar problems everywhere in Europe. The Europeans are abolishing themselves, giving up their heritage and culture, making space for senseless mass-immigration, islamisation and losing all achievements we have fought for in the last centuries and decades. We got rid of exploiting artistocracy, we got rid of dictatorships and Naziism. Now we step back and replace all those oppressing, fascist ideologies by other ideologies such as Islam which will ruin our democracies, abolish democratic values and achievements and bring us back into the deep dark Middle Ages. Immigration is okay as long as it does not replace the existing cultures that have for such a long time been a locomotive in arts, science and inventions.
Sorry for my poor English. I am German, so don't expect me to write too well. ;o)
- Marc, Frankfurt, Germany, 09/09/2010 13:16
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We spend two wasted generations encouraging anything or anyone that looks or smells of 'diversity' and and 'multiculturalism' then sit around scratching our bums wondering why we don't have a cohesive society. Of course the white folk are fleeing the cities. If I had the money I would do too. As for speaking a language being a good thing - well yes it is. But it helps if its the language of the country that you are living in. But then I expect that would be offending someone's human rights and we don't want to do that do we?
- Reynoldson, London, UK, 15/01/2010 11:40
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I am a minority (I'm white) in all of my classes at richmond upon thames college and feel very much marginalised for this as I can't exactly go to my tutor and say people have been racist against me when they have as in the eyes of the bureaucracy you can't be racist to white people. This creates a problem when we are confronted by the news in this article as it begs the question how well will the future minorities rights be protected by the present minorities.
As for white flight... I'm moving to canada next year.
- Joseph, London, UK, 02/03/2009 14:01
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UK whites can prevent becoming a minority only if they maintain their fertility rates. It would really be sad if UK becomes white-minority.
- Anand, Argentina, 16/08/2008 17:30
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Well it just goes to show immigration is now transforming into colonisation and the treacherous politicians are allowing it to happen.
- Paul, Epsom, 11/07/2008 11:53
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And all this is leading...where?
- Xenophon, Atlanta, GA USA, 30/09/2007 14:48
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It's a bit unfair to draw conclusions of language problems due to the Non-White British population. A large proportion of us English-speaking Londoners are black, Asian or mixed race. While similarly, a large proportion of the non-English speaking immigrants to London are white (i.e. Poles and other Eastern Europeans).
Also, it's not a case that only white Brits are fleeing the cities. Everyone moves out into the suburbs and further-afield, eventually. It's just that the majority of the cities' older population are white.
- Biggeur, North West London, UK, 29/09/2007 14:20
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Incredibly enlightening article.
- Finbar Bryson, Nottingham, UK, 28/09/2007 22:57
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Why is this a problem? Have I missed something.
And speaking another language is generally seen as a plus.
- Padraic Finn, London, 28/09/2007 19:18
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The human race is an amazing thing... the more things change the more they stay the same!
- R., NC. USA`, 28/09/2007 16:58
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It's not rocket science, is it? White Brits are fleeing the cities, myself included.
- Jay, London, UK, 28/09/2007 14:14
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