SOMETIMES Scotland's councils are are their own worst enemies.
Just at the moment when free school meals are being introduced in primary one to three, a number of Scottish local authorities have announced that they are considering axing breakfast clubs as part of their review of education spending.
The timing could hardly have been accidental. We understand councils are having to tighten their belts, but tightening the belts of hungry children really is not the way to attract public sympathy.
Do they understand how this will go down, not just with parents, but with teachers to have to deal with children who arrive at school with inadequate nutrition to see them through the morning?
Scottish Government research confirms that as well as benefiting children's health, breakfast clubs are also helping to improve children's attendance, punctuality and educational performance at school. Not surprising therefore that the main teachers' union, the Educational Institute for Scotland, has condemned the move.
As we report today, the EIS has been holding foodbank drives to highlight the connection between good eating and good learning. They claim there is a huge rise in the the number of young people coming to school without a proper breakfast. In areas like Glasgow, they say, nearly half of children are living in food poverty
Now it may seem hard to believe parents, no matter how tight their finances, could fail to provide their own children with a decent breakfast. A bowl of porridge, possibly the most nutritious start to the day, costs around 2p. But such is the state of disorganisation and financial distress in some households that even this is proving too much. Breakfast clubs have proven their worth in countless studies and this is not the moment to abandon them.
Some argue there should be a small charge for breakfasts and that they should be provided free only to the most disadvantaged. Why should middle class children receive free meals when councils are having to make deep cuts in educational services? This is an understandable point of view.
But the problem is that the very children who need breakfast the most are precisely the ones who are least likely to be provided with the money to pay for them. Also, the cost of collection of these small sums defeats the purpose. Means testing is inefficient and leads to the stigmatisation of those who are labelled too poor to pay.
If a way could be found which addressed these problems then we would be only too ready to support selective charging. But for the time being we have to agree with the EIS that cutting breakfast clubs is not acceptable. The new education secretary Angela Constance is committed to closing what is called the "attainment gap". Well, here is a case in point. We need a firm statement from the Scottish Government on this issue, and on how educational nutrition should be financed. It took a long time for the case to be accepted for free school meals. We don't want to have to go through all that again so soon after they have been introduced north and south of the border. In abandoning breakfast clubs, councils are in danger of taking one step forward, two steps back.
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