All over the country, as the creaking education system struggles to cope with newcomer children, Irish parents are taking flight and bringing their families with them.

Immigrant communities are being left behind, huddled in certain areas in hugely concentrated numbers. There is no denying the social implications of this 'white flight' phenomenon . . . segregation, ghettoisation, isolation. And it's about to get a whole lot worse.

Driven by frustration and concern, two school principals from Dublin 15 set about putting together an 'Intercultural Education' report on the situation in their area, which has experienced one of the most dramatic population increases in the country. The results make for alarming reading.

"We're paving the way for huge social problems if we allow segregation and ghettoisation to become the norm, " said Enda McGorman, principal of Mary Mother of Hope National School at Clonee and a co-author of the report. "It's happening at the moment. This report is a warning shot. We've a limited amount of time to get it right, but generations to regret it."

McGorman's school is a stark example of the national situation. Six years ago it had three teachers. Now it has 39, teaching 700 students, 60% of whom do not speak English as a first language. There are two temporary schools adjacent to the original school, built in direct response to the explosive demand. They are supposed to be relocated to Ongar but, McGorman says, "there is no sign of this happening any time soon".

This situation is a classic example of the reactive approach taken by the Department of Education to the influx of immigrants. It is the same approach that led to an emergency school being built in Balbriggan at the beginning of this school year to accommodate a population consisting of 100% black children who had been turned away from everywhere else.

The problem . . . real and imminent . . . is that Balbriggan isn't a once-off. Rather, according to McGorman, it's a taste of what's to come.

The Intercultural Education report contains a chilling statistic that compares the number of 12-year-olds in Dublin 15 with the number of three-year-olds, most of whom presumably are due to start school next year. There are 87% more of the three-year-olds. This, as the report points out, has 'staggering implications' for educational services in the area.

The lack of preparation by the Department is inexplicable. In 2005, the principal of Huntstown National School in west Dublin stood in his playground surrounded by children of various nationalities and warned that a social timebomb was ticking. Two years later, the haphazard approach of putting a band-aid on a gaping wound looks set to continue with the announcement that 13 new schools are to be built in the Fingal area by next September, though no one knows where, exactly, or indeed how.

Of course, it's not just the provision of schools that's causing the problem, it's the nationality of the students. "It's going to be just as bad as the Balbriggan school, " said McGorman. "Potentially we could have 13 more all-black schools, more segregation.

Emergency planning is bad planning. This is not the way to go. If integration is to work, it has to start at school level. It's a big 'No' to segregate education."

There is documented evidence in the report to show that where large numbers of immigrant children are moving into schools, there is a "serious and significant trend of Irish moving out". In the Dublin 15 area, the report found that 82 Irish pupils left between 2003 and 2007 while only 40 joined, a two-to-one ratio out of Dublin 15 by Irish pupils. By contrast, newcomer children represented 79% of the new children joining schools.

"Yes, there's evidence of white flight in Dublin 15, " said McGorman. "There are Irish couples moving out of the area. They bought houses and were told there would be a school site. It's a damning indictment of the planning at Fingal and the Department of Education.

If you don't get planning right, you can't create a sustainable community."

While no study has yet been done to establish the extent of the problem nationally, the Sunday Tribune has spoken to teachers and principals around the country who had anecdotal evidence of a similar white flight trend.

"We quite literally have local Irish children walking in the rain three or four miles past the school to get to the next school so as not to be mixing with immigrant children, " said one teacher from a primary school in Co Cork, where 42% of students are not Irish.

"About 50% of the African children in the school are actually living in a different catchment area, but their local school won't take them, " she said. "That school has basically no immigrant children, because it says it is full.

And yet it is somehow finding room for all of the local Irish children living in our area."

The teacher said that while there was a significant number of newcomer children in the senior years, the problem was much more obvious in the junior classes.

"There is one infants class with just three Irish children in it, " she said. "We think we're struggling now, but it looks like it's just going to get more unmanageable."

Most of the newcomer children are extremely clever, extremely attentive and desperate to learn, according to the teacher, but due to lack of English language support services a lot of them simply don't understand what's going on.

"To be honest, I don't blame Irish parents for wanting to move their children because they are not getting fair play in a class where the teacher is spending huge chunks of time just trying to communicate with the immigrant children, " she said. "In that situation, the Irish children are not getting the attention or the educational experience they should be."

But while empathising with parents, the teacher expressed horror at the implications of this type of segregation.

"If the immigrant population was spread around to every school, everyone would be able to cope and it would be a very positive experience for Irish children, " she said. "It's imperative that the Department implement a policy that every school within a certain area has to have a certain percentage of newcomer children. Unfortunately, some schools need to be forced to play fair."

The same sentiments were expressed by a primary school principal in south Roscommon, who said he was disgusted by the enrolment policies of some of the schools in his area.

"I think some schools have deliberate strategies for excluding newcomer children, " he said. "It's happening here, it's happening in Dublin, it's happening everywhere. Some schools have an unwritten policy that anyone who doesn't fit the mould is told there is no room left. They are basically advertising themselves on the fact that they have only Irish children. And in fact there are a certain number of parents that are moving their children away from schools where there are a high number of newcomer children. I actually think this has a lot to do with the upsurge of interest in Gaelscoileanna. I don't think it's anything to do with a newfound interest in the Irish language."

In his school, 30% of the students are not Irish. However, the principal noted that there are a number of surrounding schools that have no immigrant children at all.

"Some of them prioritise students who have siblings; others prioritise Catholic students, " he said. "Some of them even look for proof that you're a regular church-goer. But it's all a farce. This is not about prioritisation, it's about exclusionism. And the result is ghettoisation.

"It's time in modern Irish society that the school and church separated. If the Catholic Church want to run schools that prioritise Catholic children, let them set up their own schools that are not run on a state subsidy.

What we have now is unacceptable . . . a situation where Polish people and African people are paying for schools through taxes and not being given fair access to those schools."

The principal also dismissed the excuse by some schools that they have no space. "That's a myth and a fallacy, " he said. "It's either down to incomprehensible short-sightedness or reluctance. You can only be caught unawares for so long.

"When builders move into an area and announce they're going to build 5,000 houses, the board of management in that area should notify the Department of Education immediately, because obviously more school places will be needed. Immigration may have happened quickly, but how long does it take to respond?"

Teachers afraid to report misbehaviour SERIOUS behaviour and discipline problems exist in many ethnically diverse Dublin 15 primary schools, which is having an adverse educational impact, according to a new report.

The first major study on primary schooling in Dublin 15, the fastest-growing area in the capital and one of the country's most ethnically diverse, found that some teachers were afraid to report misbehaviour of newcomer children to their parents for fear of the child being physically abused.

A lack of social skills among some newcomer children was leading to considerable disruption, as was a lack of respect from some newcomer children for female teachers.

"It was felt that this was particularly an issue with some African children, and particularly boys. However, this was not universally applicable across all newcomer groups, " says the report by authors and principals Enda McGorman and Ciaran Sugrue. "While teachers were somewhat reticent about 'naming' such concerns for fear of stereotyping particular ethnic groups, there was a strong sense also that remaining silent on the issue would allow it to fester below the surface, where it would be likely to become a throbbing racist sore."

The authors stressed not all African children had discipline problems and pointed out that this group makes up a high proportion of all immigrant children. The principal of a south Roscommon school told the Sunday Tribune his experience was the opposite.

"There is a lot of talk about African children being unruly or disruptive, but I have to say that is not our experience at all. The African children in our school are often much better-behaved than a lot of the Irish students, " he said.

One teacher is quoted in the report as saying: "Within the newcomer children, there are a number of very strongwilled children in each infant class causing behavioural difficulties on a daily basis. . .

Other children are definitely suffering."

Other schools found that, after emergency psychological assessments they were able to deploy special-needs assistants in the infant classrooms to help teachers with the socialisation process. This resulted in considerable improvements in behaviour but was very time-consuming.

Teachers also said some immigrant children exhibited "hugely disrespectful behaviour" towards female members of staff. One fifthclass teacher described it as "a general lack of respect among Nigerian and African boys towards teachers, especially older children with female teachers".

Another major challenge that teachers reported in "significant numbers" was that some immigrant parents felt that the general culture of the school was too soft on children.

"A parent came in and said, 'don't be afraid to hit him. You are too soft on my child. If he doesn't do it, you hit him. You say please and thank you to the children, that is not the way'." According to another teacher: "A father came in to me and said: 'You must beat him. He does not understand this being nice so this is why he is misbehaving'."

Teachers also "repeatedly reported" cases where they were afraid to inform newcomer parents of their child's misbehaviour because they say they will be beaten if they get into trouble.

Some school principals in Dublin 15 are dealing with this problem head-on by telling parents that corporal punishment is not acceptable in school and neither is physical abuse in the home.