Elephant in the classroom

News reports about the rising primary school population in England fail to mention the 'elephant in the room', said MEP Paul Nuttall.

"It is accepted that primary schools have increasing numbers of pupils, which causes all manner of problems, but what is frequently not referred to is why we have such a boom in numbers.

"And the answer is unlimited immigration into this country. It hits some areas harder than others but there cannot be many primary schools in the country which have not been affected at all," said Mr Nuttall, UKIP Education spokesman.

"As well as the huge financial implications it results in large classes which are unfair on the pupils, particularly the vulnerable ones wherever they are from.

"The financial situation has not been helped one jot by the madness of Nick Clegg's demand for free school meals for young primary school children, a project already in disarray with shortage of funds.

"As well as the lack of money many schools also have shortage of space to make the scheme viable. Both the millions of pounds thrown at this and the space taken up would be better used on meeting the youngsters' educational needs.

"The 2011 British census recorded a 3.7million population increase in England and Wales over the previous decade, around two thirds of it brought about by immigration and high birth rates among migrant mothers.

"Even though figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that last year, just 698,512 babies were born, down from 729,674 the year before, our primary schools are stlll faced with a big problem and so in turn will the secondary schools.

"Labour have pointed out that the number of five to seven-year-olds in large classes of over 30 children has spiralled by 200% since 2010 - to nearly 100,000 infants. They omit to mention, however, that they flung open our borders and bear a heavy responsibility for the mess we are now in.

"We have to deal with the class room over-crowding we are faced with but we must also look to the future. This involves getting a firm grip on our border control and also freeing ourselves from the European Union so that we have complete control on who we allow in," said Mr Nuttall.