(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-11-25 20:47

LONDON -- The debate over immigrant children in Britain's schools was reignited this weekend after the country's leading headteachers said that rising numbers of foreign pupils are putting some schools near breaking point because they do not have the resources to cope, according to a report of the Observer on Sunday.

Members of the National Association of Headteachers will this week tell the Parliament that the issue is starting to change the culture of some schools, the report said, and some heads said the issue was "out of control".

While praising the ability of the new pupils, many of them from eastern Europe, and emphasizing that they should be welcomed into schools, headteachers are concerned they do not have the amount of money needed to cope with the issue, the report said.

On Tuesday, the association will tell the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee that education budgets have not kept pace with the increase in the number of pupils for whom English is a second language, or not spoken at all, who have entered Britain since the European Union expanded three years ago, the paper said.

The ethnic minority achievement grant, the main funding stream for schools, has increased marginally from around 160 million pounds (US$320 million) to 180 million pounds since 2005, when countries from the former eastern bloc joined the EU, it said.

But over the past three years, hundreds of thousands more migrant children have entered Britain's education system, it said.