The home secretary has defended his choice of language when making the case for controversial asylum plans.

A war of words broke out over David Blunkett's use of the term "swamped" to describe the impact of asylum seekers on schools.

Forum Response: Association of Teachers and Lecturers

Gill Stainthorpe, equal opportunities co-ordinator at ATL, told ePolitix.com: "The proposal is deeply flawed. Teaching children in accommodation centres will deny them the educational opportunities they would get in mainstream schools- in English language and across the curriculum.

"Educating non-English speakers in isolation simply pools ignorance. Children require good models of language in order to learn.

"Segregating families in centres will make it even harder for those eventually given leave to remain to assimilate into the local community. This is not the way to encourage people to settle in dispersed areas rather than returning to London.

"It is disappointing that David Blunkett, a former education secretary, should choose to ignore valuable past experience and best practice for language teaching recommended by both the education department and the Schools Inspectorate.

"The government would do better to ensure that mainstream schools have proper funding to employ specialist teachers who can ensure that these traumatised children are given the opportunities they deserve."

Forum Response: National Union of Teachers

Doug McAvoy, general secretary, of the National Union of Teachers, told ePolitix.com: "The government should listen to teachers, who are completely committed to teaching asylum-seeking children. It should be concerned to promote the best interests of these children, including their right to education in an appropriate environment. Instead, the government is promoting an extremely regressive proposal to deny asylum-seeking children education within mainstream provision.

"Asylum seeking children are children first and asylum seekers second. Their educational rights should be vigorously protected irrespective of immigration status. Education within the confines of an accommodation centre cannot equal the range of provision within a school or education authority. The government's proposals flout asylum-seeking children's right to a decent education by segregating them from other children in mainstream schools. Children in mainstream schools are the key to the rapid rehabilitation of asylum seeking children - many of whom will be traumatised by their experience of fleeing persecution or torture.

"The NUT is calling on the government to abandon any proposals which undermine asylum seeking children's right to care and development through education. This is the only way in which the government's rhetoric on social inclusion will have any meaning."