The rollout of free school meals in Sottish primary schools may have stalled beyond P5 - but Scotland’s biggest teaching union wants to see free meals provided to pupils throughout their schooldays.
The need for such an approach is highlighted during the Christmas break, believes EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley.
“The potential loss of access to free school meals during the holiday period is a serious issue for many young people,” she said today.
“While some national funding has been provided to help enable local authorities to make arrangements for free-meal provision during holiday periods, many young people fall outwith the free-meal entitlement but still face challenges associated with the high cost of living so have no help available at all.”
While free school meals are available to all children in the first five years of primary school in Scotland, plans to bring the same entitlement to P6-7 pupils have repeatedly been delayed.
Ms Bradley said: “This highlights the importance of implementing universal free school meals for all pupils [in both primary and secondary schools], so that all young people can have access to healthy and nutritious meals throughout the school week and during holiday periods.”
The EIS is calling on government, local authorities and “all relevant agencies” to do more to reduce the impact of poverty on pupils’ education and life chances.
Ms Bradley said: “The festive season is a time when many of us get together with family and friends, to enjoy each other’s company and to celebrate the things that are important to us, often eating together and exchanging gifts.
“Sadly, for many young people across Scotland, [it] often serves to highlight the extremely challenging circumstances in which they live.”
‘The political will to end poverty is the best gift’
She added: “With one-quarter of children in Scotland living in poverty, the realities of holiday hunger and winter fuel poverty are all too acute during the festive season for thousands of young people across the country. Not only will many children not receive a Christmas gift, but they will be asking where their next meal will come from.”
The Scottish government has earned praise for the Scottish Child Payment - which aims to alleviate the impact of poverty on struggling families - but faced criticism this week for the relatively small increase to that payment in the latest Budget.
Ms Bradley said: “It is absolutely essential that all layers of government - at UK, Scottish and local level - do all that they can to make policy decisions that prevent poverty in the first place and to support the hundreds of thousands of young people and their families facing challenges associated with poverty right now.
“The political will to end poverty in Scotland - and the wider UK - is the best gift that politicians of all stripes could give this Christmas time.”
A spokesperson for local authorities body Cosla said that this month’s Budget “should have had a focus on tackling the root causes of poverty, particularly its impacts on children”.
The spokesperson added: “This would have needed a greater prioritisation of the work councils do in prevention and early support.
“The essential social supports councils provide in homes, schools, hubs and communities that aim to support and empower people will be further eroded - this has been the case for a number of years now, due to poor local government settlements that cut core funding.”
