Britain is in danger of becoming a kind of “mini-America” as schools become increasingly segregated and turn into ethnic and religious ghettos, the race watchdog has claimed.

Nick Johnson, director of policy and public sector at the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), said that “a ticking time-bomb” was waiting to explode in British schools and called for urgent action to reverse the trend.

He proposed the introduction of controversial measures to encourage more race integration in education, including cash incentives for “all white” schools that take children from different racial backgrounds.

Mr Johnson, who was speaking at a seminar on education and segregation organised to help to shape a new CRE policy document, said: “Research suggests that schools across Britain are becoming increasingly segregated in terms of race and religion. We’re in fear of turning into a mini-America with racially determined schools and areas in all of Britain’s towns and cities.

“Schools are where our children first learn how to get along with people from other cultures and backgrounds.

Racially segregated schools prevent this from happening.

“If a Muslim child is educated in a school where the vast majority of other children are also Muslim, how can we expect him to work, live and interact with people from other cultures when he leaves school? This is a ticking time-bomb waiting to explode.”

Ethnic segregation in schools is most entrenched in areas where the ethnic-minority population is above the 8 per cent national average.

This can mean the emergence of predominantly white schools beside predominantly nonwhite schools. In Bradford 62 per cent of secondary schools are predominantly white, and 21 per cent are predominantly nonwhite.

The new Education and Inspections Act requires schools to promote community cohesion, but it is unclear what criteria will be used to determine whether they are doing it.

The Commission for Racial Equality is particularly concerned about academy and trust schools, which have greater freedom over their admissions policies than other state schools.

“Some are using this position to cream off pupils from certain ethnic backgrounds or religions, thus reducing interaction and increasing racial tensions,” Mr Johnson said.

“If schools are judged solely on the academic results of pupils, it’s hardly surprising that they are selecting white, middle-class pupils, who have more opportunities and are more likely to succeed. This is creating a culture of ‘education by ethnicity’.”

One possible solution proposed by the CRE would be the introduction of new criteria for schools applying for trust status, requiring them to have a “a balanced and diverse intake”. Adjustments to school-funding arrangements could be considered, copying policies from the US.

“This would mean that schools would be financially rewarded for taking in more pupils from ethnic-minority backgrounds,” Mr Johnson said.

David Willetts, the Shadow Education Secretary, said that the Conservatives were looking at ways of providing incentives for schools to increase diversity in their admissions.

However, he advised against the introduction of a school-funding formula based on race. “It would be very dangerous to explicitly bring race into the allocation of public funds,” he said.

Simon Burgess, Professor of Economics at Bristol University, said that although ethnic segregation in school was increasing in certain parts of the country for certain racial groups, such as for children of Pakistani origin in Blackburn, there was no overall increase across the country.

“It is almost certainly true that ethnic segregation in schools is bad for social cohesion. But there are other issues. It may or may not be that children do better educationally in schools where there are other children like themselves.

“Pupils may also have greater feelings of personal safety in a school where there are lots of other children like them around. These are questions we have to research,” he said.

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