Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, responded to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s annual poverty report, which shows that there are 3.9m children living in poverty in the UK
He said: “These bleak findings demonstrate just how much more work needs to be done to create a fairer society.
“As the report states, there is a clear link between poverty and educational attainment that is evident at a young age and continues throughout a child’s education, impacting their future employment and indeed their entire life. The pandemic and cost-of-living crisis have widened the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers, but the inequalities that underpin our society have been around far longer and run much deeper. If children lack basic amenities, if they are cold and hungry, then they are not in a fit state to learn. Significant and sustained government investment is required to tackle child poverty and ensure the conditions are right for all young people to be able to learn and thrive.
“Immediate and urgent action is also necessary over the growing number of pupils attending school hungry. The government must extend the free school meals scheme to all children whose families are in receipt of Universal Credit to ensure that young people are guaranteed a decent meal. This is so obvious that it should not need saying, and yet the calls for this simple step, made by many organisations and individuals, have so far been ignored.”
Be the first to comment