Teachers’ plea: Free breakfast for all

EVERY pupil in Scotland should be provided with a free breakfast, according to the country’s largest teaching union.

The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) plans to lobby the Scottish Government to extend the free school meal entitlement to include breakfast and make it open to all.

The move, voted through at the union’s annual meeting last month, follows testimony from teachers who say they have to spend their own cash buying food to ensure their pupils are fed in the morning. The scheme, which would cost millions, would see a extension the traditional school day, with primary and secondary schools opening their doors an hour earlier in the morning.

While its main aim is to ensure children from low income families do not start the day hungry, it would also be beneficial to busy working parents who struggle to make a nutritious breakfast for their children every morning. Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the EIS, said: ‘It is essential that we continue to combat child poverty to ensure that all young people have a fair chance to achieve their potential. It should be seen as a universal entitlement.’

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Legislation is already in place that allows councils the flexibility they need to provide services such as breakfast clubs.’

A spokesman for council umbrella group Cosla said: ‘Any decision by local authorities to provide breakfasts for school pupils would take place against a backdrop of tough settlements from the Scottish Government.’