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Dept for Education and Skills

Answer

Mr. Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children from refugee and asylum-seeking families in schools in England do not have English as a first language; if he will list the schemes to teach them English; and how much the Department has spent and will spend on such teaching in each year from 2001-02 to 2005-06. [102289] Mr. Stephen Twigg: Approximately 632,000 (9.3 per cent.) of pupils in maintained schools in England are recorded as having a mother tongue other than English although it is not possible to determine how many of these have an asylum seeking or refugee background as Local Education Authorities (LEAs) are not required to provide such information. Support for bilingual learners is through mainstream provision rather than separate schemes to teach English. There is no separate funding for teaching English as an additional language, but the Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant worth £154 million in 2001-02 and £155 million in 2002-03 and 2003-04 provides support for minority ethnic pupils at risk of underachievement and for those whose first language is not English. This includes British born children as well as those from asylum seeking and refugee families. From April 2003 the Vulnerable Children Grant worth £84 million for the next three years will provide support to help schools and LEAs meet the needs of a range of vulnerable pupils including those from asylum seeking backgrounds.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

102289; 401 c566W

Session

2002-03

Subjects

Asylum Finance Education Languages English language Pupils Schools Refugees

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk