Recession has created 'scavenger' pupils who hunt scraps of food in schools and use it as a place to warm up, poll reveals
- More than half of teachers questioned encounter hungry children every week
- Educators fear high youth unemployment will
leave pupils facing the dole
- Over a million young people considered unemployed in latest figures
The economic crisis is so bad in parts of the UK that schoolchildren are being forced to eat leftovers from other pupils’ dinners because their families can barely afford to feed them, a new survey suggests.
Teachers have reported witnessing ‘scavenger’ pupils finishing scraps from classmates' plates and the poll by the Prince’s Trust and the Times Educational Supplement also found that youngsters were using school as a place to warm up with many arriving for lessons dirty and unable to concentrate.
More than half (57%) of the teachers questioned said they encounter young people who are hungry at least once a week with four out of ten saying they see young people desperate for food every day.
Recession victims: A new survey of teachers reveals that some youngsters are so hungry when they come to school they have to 'scavenge' scraps from other pupils' plates
Worse still, 16 per cent of teachers say they have seen a pupil suffering from malnutrition or showing signs of not eating enough every day.
One teacher told researchers they see 'scavenger pupils finishing off scraps, as they haven’t eaten enough'.
The findings, based on interviews with 515 secondary school educators, come the day after it was announced that the UK has fallen back into recession.
Teachers increasingly fear that high youth unemployment will leave their pupils facing a future on the dole, the survey concluded.
RESEARCH SHOWS WIDER GAP IN ACHIEVEMENT BETWEEN RICH AND POOR PUPILS IN UK THAN CANADA
The gap in achievement between richer and poorer pupils is bigger in England than in nations such as Canada and Iceland research shows.
A Government study has found that the impact of a pupil’s background is 'significantly higher' than average.
Researchers analysed a study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to examine how the attainment gap in England compares with other countries
Department for Education (DfE) analyst Emily Knowles said: 'In England, compared to other top-performing countries, moving up the scale of economic and social status makes more of a difference to pupils’ attainment.'
The same is true for nations such as New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and Belgium.
A DfE spokeswoman said: 'The Government is determined to improve the academic performance of the poorest pupils.
Seven in 10 of the teachers questioned said they increasingly worried that their pupils will end up on benefits due to the high unemployment rate.
According to the latest official figures, just over a million 16 to 24-year-olds were considered unemployed in the three months to February.
Prince’s Trust director of policy and strategy, Ginny Lunn, raised concerns that schoolchildren will become the next victims of the financial crisis.
She said: 'The recession is already damaging the hopes of more than a million young people who are struggling to find a job. Now young people in schools are next in line.
'We cannot allow them to become the next victims of this recession. With the right support, it is possible for pupils to achieve their ambitions, rather than becoming a lost generation.
'Government, charities and employers must work with teachers now to support vulnerable young people, giving them the skills they need to find a job in the future.'
The research also raises questions about the numbers of pupils turning up in class without clean clothes.
Almost two-thirds (65%) of the teachers surveyed come across students who do not have clean clothes at least once a week, with four out of ten of these saying they witness this every day.
A third said: 'One student came into school wearing a soaking wet uniform. He washed it in the morning as his mother had failed to do so due to being inebriated. He didn’t know how to use the drier so came in wet.'
There were also suggestions that the situation is getting worse.
A quarter (26%) of those surveyed say they have encountered children with dirty clothes more frequently since the start of the recession in 2009.
Research by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) also found that teachers have seen a rise in the number of children on free meals at school. It suggested this was down to the effects of the recession, with more parents facing redundancy.
ATL general secretary Dr Mary Bousted said: 'Too few politicians really understand what it is about poverty that affects children’s learning.
'Forget about executive stress, try spending the week knowing that the food will run out before any more money comes in.
'Under that kind of pressure, no wonder relationships get strained, youngsters are deprived of sleep, often suffer emotional damage and cannot concentrate in school or remember what they have learnt.'