Free school meals should be offered to every pupil in Scotland’s state schools as part of the response to the cost-of-living crisis, the country’s biggest teaching union has said.
The EIS union said free school meals should be extended to all pupils in primary and secondary schools.
In the Programme for Government published yesterday, first minister Nicola Sturgeon said work is beginning on extending free meals to all primary pupils in 2022-23, although it is not yet clear when this will be complete.
Currently all P1-5 pupils in Scotland are entitled to free school meals, although figures published yesterday show that only 68 per cent of P1-5s are taking free school meals.
The 2022-23 Programme for Government, published yesterday, states: “Subject to agreement with [local authorities’ body] Cosla, [we will] begin to roll out the provision of universal free school meals to Primary 6 and Primary 7 pupils, and take further action to reduce the cost of the school day for families, including reducing the cost of school uniforms through new guidance.”
Until a change emerged in December 2021, it had been the plan that P6-7 universal free school meals would be available from August 2022, and it now transpires that there is still no firm target date.
When Tes Scotland asked for details of when free school meals would actually be made available to P6-P7s, a Scottish government spokesperson replied: ”During the academic year 2022-23, we will work with our partners to plan for this expansion [to P6-7], supported by £30 million of funding for expansion of catering and dining facilities.
“Timescales have been adjusted to reflect feedback from local authorities that it would not have been possible for all schools to increase the capacity of their kitchen and dining facilities.”
Call for free school meals for all pupils
In a letter to Ms Sturgeon, EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley said: “That the Scottish government is preparing a budgetary response to the current cost-of-living emergency, which we know is driving hundreds of thousands more families into poverty, underscores the indisputable need for swift action to ensure that every child and young person attending school can be provided daily with at least one school meal, or with the means to buy one, should the current school meal infrastructure demand an alternative means of mustering an emergency response.”
Ms Bradley added: “Whilst it is understood that the Scottish government had planned a phased approach to the expansion of universal free school meals for primary-aged pupils and the trialling of such provision in secondary, the EIS is of the view, now more than ever, that stigma-free access to food during the school day and holiday periods for all children and young people, including those from P6 to S6, has to be one of the emergency measures that Scotland takes.”
