Schools in Berlin with a German-only language rule and large numbers of foreign pupils have been accused of anti-Turkish discrimination

Kate Connolly:

Six secondary schools have banned all languages except German in the classroom, playground and on school trips to speed integration.

The Union of Teachers voted this week to expand the policy nationally. In some schools up to 90 per cent of the pupils are non-German.

The rule has been criticised by some politicians and Turkish groups who say it discriminates against the pupils and violates the constitution.

The Turkish Union, which represents Germany's largest ethnic minority, said the policy would create resentment and should be scrapped.

"The learning and use of German is very important but by forbidding something you only achieve the opposite effect to the one you wanted," said Eren Ünsal, its spokesman. "Children should not be forbidden from talking in their mother tongue."

Claudia Roth, the leader of the Green Party, said the policy would hamper integration. "Integration is not going to happen if you impose such rules on people's break-times," she said.

But the headmistress of the Herbert Hoover school, in Wedding, north Berlin, which was the first to adopt the rule, said her school attracted Turkish parents precisely because of the policy.

"Those who want jobs need to be able to speak German well," Jutta Steinkamp said.

Those pupils heard speaking their own language were "politely reprimanded", she said. But no one was punished unless they used their mother tongues to "aggressively attack pupils or teachers".

The pupils defended the German-only policy yesterday. "We need German," said a 16-year-old Turkish girl. "We all come from a variety of different countries, and we speak German when we're all together, even if your own language slips out from time to time."

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