“Hidden costs” act as a barrier to educational opportunities, union says

Children’s access to critical educational opportunities is becoming increasingly dependent on their parents’ ability to pay, a teachers union has said.

Union NASUWT told the Scottish Trades Union Congress that the increasing costs families face in sending their children to school are acting as a barrier to children and young people’s participation in activities and educational opportunities.

A recent NASUWT survey found that in Scotland, 57 per cent of parents said that school uniform had to be purchased from a particular supplier and that restricting the purchase to one supplier often means the items are more expensive.

In addition, the poll found that one in ten said they were required by their child’s school to purchase computer equipment such as a tablet or laptop, and seven per cent said that the cost of equipment affected what subjects their child chose to study.

Nearly one in ten (nine per cent) said they were unable to allow their child to participate in an educational trip or visit in the last year due to the cost and 17 per cent said their child was unable to participate in non-curriculum related trips such as residential, foreign or end of term excursions due to cost.

Nearly one in five (19 per cent) said they had been in arrears or debt to their child’s school for payments for things such as lunches or activities, with over a third (36 per cent) saying that the situation was not dealt with sensitively by the school.

Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, said: “It is clear that families are facing significant substantial hidden costs in supporting their children’s education and that access to the full range of educational opportunities is becoming ever more dependent on parents’ ability to pay.

“These costs have the potential to entrench the inequality which children and young people from lower income families already experience and undermine attempts to close the attainment gap.

“The NASUWT will be lobbying the Scottish government to raise awareness and to put in place strategies to ensure that access to education is not based on parents’ ability to pay.”