Teachers To "Poverty-Proof" Classrooms

Teaching union the EIS is issuing advice on child poverty to teachers and lecturers.

The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), the country's largest union for teachers and lecturers, is to issue new advice to schools and colleges on how to "poverty-proof" learning and teaching in the classroom. The new advice, contained in a new booklet entitled Face up to Child Poverty, is being published following an EIS survey which asked teachers and lecturers to share their experiences of the impact of poverty on their pupils and students. The new advice, which has been prepared by the EIS Equality Committee, will be sent to all schools and colleges in Scotland next week. 
 
Commenting on the launch of the advice, EIS Equality Convener Bill Ramsay said, "The EIS is absolutely committed to taking all realistic practical steps to reduce the impact of poverty on the young people in our classrooms. This new booklet, which has been written by teaching professionals and based on the first-hand experiences of teachers and lecturers working with young people across Scotland, offers useful guidance for teaching staff and advice on poverty-proofing class activity and home study assignments."
 
He continued, "The guide also addresses key issues such as uniform policies, educational excursions and access to information technology and examines the financial pressure that can be placed on families as a result. Sadly, we also highlight the growing problem of young people turning up to school or college hungry because their families simply do not have the money to provide food. In the 21st Century, in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, children going unfed is both wholly unacceptable and entirely unnecessary."
 
EIS General Secretary Larry Flanagan said, "The fact that food poverty now affects such a large, and growing, section of society should shame those in government and elsewhere who continue to push the damaging and divisive austerity-above-all agenda. Schools and colleges are part of society, and so are not immune from the problems of that wider society. Working alone, educational establishments cannot eradicate poverty or eliminate completely its negative impact on young people."
 
He added, "However, teachers and lecturers can and do make a very real difference in the lives of the young people that they work with on a day to day basis. Our hope is that, by offering this booklet to all schools and colleges, teachers and lecturers will give even greater consideration to how poverty affects their pupils and students. The poverty-proofing measures suggested in the guide can, we hope, assist teaching professionals in trying to mitigate, as far as possible, the impact of low incomes on young people’s educational experience."