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A
high proportion of pupils in London schools
speak languages of the Indian subcontinent such
as Punjabi, Urdu, Gujarati and Bengali, a survey
has revealed.
Pupils
from families with origins in the Indian subcontinent
form the largest linguistic minority communities,
it said. Punjabi speakers are the biggest of
these South Asian groupings and they outnumber
Welsh speakers.
Official
sources said different children attending many
London schools speak 30 or more different languages.
The survey covered 850,000 children in these
schools.
Head
teachers are reportedly in favour of dropping
French and German in favour of Punjabi or Bengali.
Children
between 11 and 14 are required to study at least
one European foreign language. But head teachers
have called for dropping this requirement on
the ground that the linguistic abilities of
large numbers of ethnic minority and refugee
children were being ignored because they had
to learn another European language as well as
master English.
The
survey revealed that there are two main groups
of Punjabi speakers, Sikhs from the Indian state
of Punjab and Muslims from the Mirpur district
of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).
However,
because Urdu is the language of Pakistan, Mirpuris
usually describe themselves as Urdu speakers.
Both groups are spread throughout Britain but
have important settlements in London and the
south, the Midlands and the north of England.
Gujarati
speakers are scattered throughout the country
with particular concentrations in Greater London
and the Midlands.
Bengali
speakers draw on a small, mainly Hindu, community
from India's West Bengal and a much larger Muslim
Bangladeshi community which is concentrated
in the London boroughs of Tower Hamlets and
Camden, though smaller settlements are also
to be found in cities such as Coventry and Bradford.
The
survey reveals that the Chinese form another
numerically important group in London's schools,
although unlike the large South Asian communities,
their patterns of settlement are more dispersed.
Most
Chinese came to Britain in the 1950s and 1960s
to escape high levels of unemployment in Hong
Kong.
Courtesy:
www.hindustantimes.com, August 23, 2003
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