Four in 10 staff at schools and colleges across England say poverty among their students has got worse since the recession began and that some parents can no longer afford to give their children breakfast, according to a survey by a teaching union.
Teachers also report cases of children wearing ill-fitting shoes, coming to school inappropriately dressed, and missing classes because they cannot afford bus fares. Nearly 80 per cent of staff say they have students at their school or college living in poverty, according to the survey by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL). Most teachers say students whose families are affected by poverty are coming to school tired and hungry. Staff say many such children cannot concentrate and have higher rates of absence.
A teacher from Suffolk, eastern England, said: “More children from middle- to lower-income families are not going on school trips and these families find it difficult to meet the basic cost of living.” A teacher working with sixth-form students in Nottingham, central England, says she had a student who “had not eaten for three days as their mother had no money until payday.” She knows of students who work long hours to pay for their bus passes and food.
A teaching assistant in a secondary school in central England, said: “Every day I become aware of a child suffering due to poverty. Today I have had to contact parents because a child has infected toes due to feet squashed into shoes way too small.” They chiefly blame job losses and higher food prices. Just over half say the government should extend eligibility for free school meals, and 47 per cent call for the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) to be restored. Last week, the OECD, an influential Paris-based think tank, called on the British government to reinstate the EMA to encourage participation in secondary education. It said improving young people's educational achievement would promote growth and help cut the deficit.
Dr. Mary Bousted, general secretary of the ATL, said: “What message does this government think it is sending young people when it is cutting funding for Sure Start centres, cutting the EMA, raising tuition fees and making it harder for local authorities to provide health and social services?
A Department for Education spokesman said: “We're overhauling the welfare and schools systems precisely to tackle entrenched worklessness, family breakdown, low educational achievement and financial insecurity. We're targeting investment directly at the poorest families.”
The union surveyed more than 600 school and college staff in England in March. ( Jeevan Vasagar is education editor of TheGuardian.) — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2011
