A DOZEN Hampshire schools are breaking the law by failing to have a race equality policy or record incidents of racial harassment, according to latest figures.

education bosses are to write to the 12 unnamed schools which have not filled in their annual returns for the last two years on the number of racial incidents.

A further 28 schools have no race equality policy in place despite the fact they are breaching The Race Relations Act.

In Southampton 85 per cent of schools returned their forms detailing the number of racial incidents between September and January.

Figures collected about school racial incidents throughout 2003 show the number of recorded racial incidents have increased from 448 to 543.

However, the 21 per cent rise is largely due to a similar increase in the number of schools (85 per cent) which have returned their forms.

Most of the incidents were name calling or racist comments made in classroom discussions.

Others included abusing family members, jostling, pushing and having racist material.

Ian Massey, the intercultural inspector for schools told a meeting of Hampshire's Education Policy Review Committee that with more than 60 languages other than English spoken in Hampshire's schools the need to reflect ethnic diversity in the curriculum was essential. Mr Massey said: "It is quite clear there are areas where we need to develop further, especially schools that do not have a policy in place.

"We still need to improve on the return rate too."

Hampshire's education boss Councillor Don Allen said: "I am pleased that the majority of schools are monitoring racial incidents but it is disappointing that some schools, despite reminders, have not sent us returns.

"This information is essential to allow the county council to have a detailed understanding of the scale of the problem of racial incidents and to ensure the appropriate support is being provided."

With 560 schools across the county the rate of racial incidents works out at fewer than one per school.