Recession has created 'scavenger' pupils

Recession has created 'scavenger' pupils who hunt scraps of food in schools and use it as a place to warm up, poll reveals

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. 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.

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