Fewer native English speakers in UK schools

London: Children who speak English as their first language are in a minority in a rapidly growing number of schools, figures reveal.

The surge has been most pronounced in London, where in some boroughs youngsters with a different mother tongue make up nearly 80 per cent of primary pupils.

However it is not confined to the capital. In Birmingham, Bradford and Leicester more than 40 per cent of pupils across all primary schools do not count English as their first language. Nationally, English is a foreign tongue to nearly one in six youngsters in primary schools.

The figures, to be published this week, have almost doubled during the past decade and are projected to increase to 23 per cent Π(830,000 out of 3.5 million)Πby 2018.

There are concerns that the increases will place school finances under strain as a growing number of youngsters require help with English.

MigrationWatch, which conducted the study using figures from the Office for National Statistics, believes that over the next five years more than 500,000 extra school places will be needed for the children of immigrants who arrived in Britain after 1998.

This will cost the Treasury £40 billion, equal to a penny in the pound on the basic rate of income tax.

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of MigrationWatch UK, said the trend will lower education standards for native English-speaking children.

He said: "These pupils will of course continue through the education system but it is primary schools where the effect is being felt most acutely at present and where English-speaking children are bound to suffer as immigrant children require extra help."

The figures reflect a more than four-fold increase in immigration since Labour came to power.

Net annual immigration has increased from 48,000 in 1997 to 215,000 in 2009.