Rise in non-English speaking pupils

Schools receive £1,000 for each pupil who speaks poor English

The number of school pupils in Northern Ireland whose first language is not English has gone up by a quarter on the previous year.

Latest figures show that 7,000 children with little or no English were registered for this academic year.

The largest number of pupils comes from the Polish community.

There are also large numbers of children from the Portuguese, Lithuanian, Filipino and Cantonese communities.

Schools receive approximately £1,000 extra for each of those pupils and the current annual cost is £6.5m.

Some politicians have raised concerns that some schools may not be using the money for the correct purpose and have asked for close monitoring of the spending.