Food poverty and Catholic schools in the post Covid-19 era

Abstract

Many educational systems throughout the world are now adjusting to the post Covid-19 era. These systems are reflecting on the effects of the restrictions and lockdowns on children and school education. This is certainly the case in the Catholic schools in the UK and this is an opportune moment to examine the continuing pressing social challenge of child poverty and the impact of child poverty on the school education of children and young people. We must emphasise from the outset that child poverty levels in the UK were alarmingly high before the pandemic, were exacerbated by the pandemic, and continue to be unacceptably high. The Child Poverty Action Group report that the overall figure for child poverty in the UK for 2021-2022 was 4.2 million children or 29% of all children. This amounts to nine children in a classroom of thirty (Child Poverty Action Group, 2023). These levels of poverty and child poverty in the UK have been affected by the economic effects of the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and the cost of living crisis which has grave consequences for the most vulnerable
families.

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https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/316540/