One in four primary school pupils in Britain are from an ethnic minority and almost a million schoolchildren do not speak English as their first language

More than a quarter of primary school children are from an ethnic minority – an increase of almost half a million since 1997. The Government’s annual school census painted a picture of a changing Britain where schools are under mounting pressure from mass immigration. In some areas, only 8% of primary pupils are from a white British background. Nearly one million children aged 5 to 16 – 957,490 – speak English as a second language, up from almost 800,000 five years ago. And 26.5% of primary pupils – 862,735 – are from an ethnic minority. When Labor took office in 1997, the total was 380,954. At secondary level, the total of ethnic minority children – 723,605 – has risen from 17.7% to 22.2% in five years. The biggest group of ethnic minority pupils were South Asians, making up 10% of primary pupils and 8.3% of secondary pupils.