Parents have rejected free school meals for primary and secondary pupils, a key policy of the Scottish Socialist Party and some MSPs from other parties.
A survey of parents in 152 schools by the Scottish Parent Teacher Council found 47.4 per cent were in favour of the present system but with improvements to the quality of food and drink.
In contrast, just 41.7 per cent want to see free meals for all while 10.8 per cent believe that meals should be free in primary but not in secondary.
Parents said that cost was not the only factor in the low take-up of school meals.
Crunch time for the nation’s children special pull-out in TES Jobs 1