England Without the English: London School Has Zero Native Speakers
4th July 2025
Ultimate diversity has finally been achieved. London is now home to a school where not one of the pupils’ first languages is English. Welcome to Kobi Nazrul Primary School—named after the national poet of Bangladesh, but which curiously you find situated in London’s East End, just a stone’s throw from the East London Mosque (one of Europe’s largest), which comfortably accommodates 7,000 Muslims.
Anyone familiar with the English Monopoly board might be shocked to learn that, according to the 2021 Census, Whitechapel (the school’s locale) is home to a 51.3% Asian population. Of the school’s 243 pupils, 92.5% are Bangladeshi who speak Bengali as their first language. Ofsted apparently gave the school a ‘glowing’ report, coupled with a ‘good’ rating. But then, at least the school wasn’t ‘too white’—something to which Ofsted has previously objected.
The influx of Islam set against the backdrop of cockney London is striking. The Victorian terraced houses still stand, but the pie and mash shops and pubs frequented by the Kray twins are long gone. In their stead, Palestinian flags adorn the windows; ‘no ball games’ is written in both English and Bengali; and instead of ‘gangster chic’, abayas and thobes now throng the pavements.