More than one in eight schoolchildren in England do not speak English as their first language. These shocking figures are a direct result of Labour’s open-door immigration policy, and shows just how stretched schools are since the Eastern European countries joined the EU in 2004. In four areas of the country there are two thirds of children who have English as their second langauge.
It costs £30,000 a year to educate a non-English speaking pupil, and more money will be needed as the numbers increase rapidly. Schools’ minister Jim Knight has even indicated that the problems arise from the fact that the British teachers do not speak the language of their pupils! He said: “Undoubtedly there can be problems where we don’t have a workforce that has the native language that the children speak at home. They have to become skilled fairly quickly in that language sufficient to be able to teach the children well.”
In Suffolk, for example, there are more than 100 languages spoken in schools. This is bound to have a negative effect on the schooling of native British children.
More here.
Filed under: News | Tagged: English as second language, Schoolchildren
