Free school meals demand from across Parliament and unions
The Scottish Government has been “shamed” by the Parliament today according to Scotland’s largest trade union body following a debate on the SNP’s rollback on universal free school meals.
Last week during the Programme for Government, the Scottish Government dropped their manifesto commitment to rolling out free school meals to all primary school pupils. The STUC Women’s Committee campaign, Food for Thought, had been urging the Scottish Government to continue with their rollout and expand provision across primary and secondary schooling.
The issue was raised in Parliament today as parties from across the political spectrum united to hold the Scottish Government to account for their “betrayal of school pupils” according to STUC General Secretary Roz Foyer.
Commenting, Ms Foyer said:
“Putting the sheer hypocrisy aside for the Tories to bring a motion like this to Parliament when they are utterly complicit in embedding child poverty, it shows how parties across the chamber are rightly furious on the SNP Scottish Government’s betrayal of school pupils.
“The government has been shamed today. Our Parliament was right to hold them to account. Every day that a child goes hungry in our classrooms is a national scandal and it’s utterly incompatible for the Scottish Government to claim eradicating child poverty is their priority whilst they rollback on their pledge to our pupils.
“It’s avoidable. It’s preventable. It’s inexcusable. The Scottish Government was leading the way in tackling this and ensuring every child, no matter their background, had the same opportunities as any other but they must now carry the can for their shocking broken promise to our kids.
Commenting, STUC Women’s Committee Chair Lorna Glen said:
“The Scottish Government must listen. Not only to parliament, our unions and our movement but more importantly to the pupils of Scotland who need their government to stick to their word.
“Child hunger is entirely avoidable. It’s welcome that the First Minister seeks to eradicate child poverty, but this simply cannot be done if government ministers fall and the first hurdle and rollback on their pledges.
“They cannot fail. It’s one thing to break a manifesto promise but it’s another matter entirely to let down a generation of pupils who need help from their government when they’re most in need.
END
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