READING TOWN SPEAKS 150 LANGUAGES

A study carried out in Reading, Berkshire, found languages spoken in local schools ranged from obscure African dialects to an ancient Aztec language from South America.

It is feared that the country’s schools are being placed under increasing strain as more pupils with little or no command of English enter the British education system.

Besides Urdu, Punjabi and Polish, pupils speak the Ghanaian dialect of Akan, the south central African language of Chichewa, the Aztec tongue of Nahuatl and Telugu from India.

The Government admitted the “extraordinary” number of languages would put schools under pressure.

To combat the trend, Reading Borough Council, which carried out the survey, has been forced to offer children and adults discounted language lessons.

Tory MP Philip Davies said Labour’s open-door immigration policy was to blame for the big rise in non-English speakers in British schools.

He said: “It’s very worrying and Labour’s lax immigration policies are a huge factor in this.

“It is also a result of political correctness. We haven’t made people integrate properly into British society.”