Increased school meal prices could "tip vulnerable families into poverty", says Coleraine General Secretary of UTU
The increased cost of school meals “could tip vulnerable families into poverty”, a teaching union representative from Coleraine has said.
Jacquie White, General Secretary of the Ulster Teachers’ Union and a former teacher at Millburn Primary, was responding to news that school dinner prices here will rise by around 20% from January.
“This is just the worst possible news for families at the start of the winter when they are facing rising household costs,” said Ms White.
“Although free school meals will not be affected, once again it is the hard-pressed families who fall just outside the parameters for those who will undoubtedly struggle most.
“We know that lifting children out of poverty is one of the most powerful ways to better educational outcomes yet our fear is that these price rises could actually tip families already struggling into poverty.
“For many children that hot meal in the middle of the day is their main meal and as teachers we see the impact when pupils don’t have it. Hungry children cannot learn.
“The Education Authority says the price rises will help address a £300m shortfall in its funding but now it seems it’s expecting families to bail it out and pay even more for things they’re already paying for in the first place.
“Rising school dinner prices come on top of the fact that EA has already told principals to restrict the appointment of new staff and limit the use of substitute teachers to address shortfall.
“How are schools and teachers going to continue to function properly and provide the education the next generation deserves in the face of all this?
“The new ‘savings’ measures seem cruelly cynical as it’s the most vulnerable children who stand to lose out.”