‘School pupils deserve better’

The cost of sending children to school and ensuring they have food and clothing has a huge impact on people's household incomes.

Every day my office is contacted by families impacted by the backlog in Free School Meals and Uniform Grants applications, struggling to make ends meet.

Many parents have raised concerns at difficulty accessing the relevant advice from the Education Authority due to the volume of telephone calls and assistance required in accessing free school meals and support with uniforms.

There also needs to be a simplified system for parents with no change in circumstances to reapply and avoid delays.

Families shouldn’t have to wait. They cannot afford to.

Sinn Féin has called on the Department of Education to explore ways, such as a back payment to support families eligible for free school meals left waiting for their application to be processed while having to find the money to their children can eat at school.

Many schools have stepped in to ensure no child goes hungry by redirecting limited finances towards free school meals, despite this being a statutory responsibility of DE.

In dealing with holiday hunger, outgoing Finance Minister Conor Murphy previously set aside funding in his draft budget to tackle holiday hunger.

We need to legislate to end holiday hunger by introducing a duty on the EA and DE to provide financial payments in lieu of Free School Meals during school holidays.

We cannot do this without an Executive.

Uniforms continue to be a significant expense adding financial pressure on parents and families at a time when people are already struggling.

Sinn Féin wants to legislate to make uniforms affordable, requiring schools to have competitive tendering, removing unnecessary branded items and replacing these with cheaper high street alternatives.

Such legislation is not possible without an Executive.

Added to the cost of sending children to school there are other challenges to ensure our children receive the education they deserve.

Teachers and staff are central to the delivery of a high standard of education and there is a need for investment in the education system and the delivery of better pay and conditions for those who work in it.

It is outrageous that substitute teachers are still not receiving the wages they have earned, with many still owed pay from August.

Sinn Féin repeatedly raised this issue with former education minister Michelle Mcllveen, urging her to find a solution and come forward with interim arrangements.

In response the outgoing Minister has now asked the EA to process interim emergency payments to all of those individual teachers impacted.

There are huge challenges facing the system. To meet these challenges and tackle issues such as educational inequalities, we need to stand up for every single child by re-establishing an Executive.

It’s the least our children and young people deserve.