Almost 10,000 pupils in Scottish schools do not speak English as a first language.

The Scottish Executive report for the 2006 school year show there were 9486 pupils speaking 137 different first languages in Scotland, including Punjabi, Urdu, Cantonese, Polish and Arabic.

The Executive figures revealed that last September there were 702,737 pupils in 2757 state schools compared to 713,240 pupils in 2769 schools in 2005.

In mainstream schools, there were 29,173 pupils with additional support needs compared to 27,540 in 2005, a 6% increase.

The average class size in primary schools was 23.6 pupils, the same as in 2005.

Classes in P1 had the smallest average size at 22.9 pupils, down from 23.1 in 2005.

Now the Educational Institute of Scotland has warned the increase in pupils who were not fluent in English was not matched by a rise in language support services.

There were also calls for the Executive to move more quickly to publish its race-equality strategy.

Ali Jarvis, the CRE's interim director, said: "These figures are a clear indicator of just why Scotland needs to tackle racial inequalities."

The EIS called for greater support, particularly in cities such as Glasgow and Edinburgh, where immigration has been targeted.

Willie Hart, secretary of the Glasgow branch of the union, said: "There has to be a greater emphasis on providing the necessary additional resources."

An Executive spokeswoman added: "We have put in significant additional resources which can be drawn upon to improve support for bilingual pupils."