RACIST incidents within Kent schools have more than doubled in recent years, according to the latest figures available.

Data obtained by the television station Channel 4 revealed the number of incidents in the county's schools between 1999 and 2006 increased from 294 to 776.

Kent was one of the 90 educational authorities in England highlighted by the TV channel earlier this year.

But county council and educational chiefs believe the huge rise in figures is due to better reporting methods within schools.

Cllr Chris Wells, KKC's Cabinet member for children, families and educational standards, stressed: "There has been a lot of change in the past seven or eight years. There is better awareness, better training and a better system to report racial incidents.

"We are always going to be concerned to see activities like this within schools as it causes some pupils to underperform and later display problems."

He said Kent County Council provided on-going racial equality training for teachers and school governors. It also employed equality and diversity champions to promote awareness.

Cllr Wells added: "We also work with Kent Police on general bullying within schools.

"We are not complacent but we are not conscious that there has been a huge rise in the number of racist incidents, only conscious of the ability to report them more accurately than before, which is better than the issue being hidden.

"We have to have racism out in the open to be able to deal with it."

Dev Sharma, director of the North West Kent Racial Equality Council, (NWKREC), has worked with KCC and schools concerning six racist incidents that had occurred in schools in the past year.

He said: "I am very concerned that the number of incidents is on the increase in Kent and there could be several reasons for that.

"I think recent migration from Eastern Europe could be a factor and the bombings in London have also played a part in it. Children can also pick things up from the community about different religious groups.

"But overall I think the increase in incidents is because there is better reporting within schools as they are more aware of what is going on."

He said NWKREC worked with KCC to ensure all schools had various race equality schemes in place and to make teachers more aware of discrimination and how to deal with it.

"The schemes, which are just coming into force, detail the steps schools have to take to identify problems and how they overcome them.

"This helps to keep schools more accountable and helps improve the situation."

Simon Decker, a spokesman for the Kent and Medway branch of the National Association of the Headteachers, also believes better reporting of incidents does account for the recent rise.

He said: "Schools are now required to report all racist incidents immediately to the local education authority rather than at the end of each year."

John Walder, secretary of the Kent division of the National Union of Teachers, (NUT), said he believed the possible rise in racist incidents was due to more people coming from different backgrounds in schools than in the past.

He stressed: "Racial prejudice has always been present in our county, as everywhere else, but there are certainly more opportunities for those seeking a pretext to exhibit their prejudice than before.

"The NUT encourages all schools to tackle all forms of racism and to put in all practices to combat it.

"We also circulate a whole series of posters stating our position over racism in schools."

There are currently no figures available for 2007.