Cookery lessons at school

[Guest guest]

Health organisations, teachers' unions and children's charities are

demanding compulsory cookery lessons in schools.

More than 50 bodies, including the British Heart Foundation, say it

is a scandal that so many pupils left school unable to cook.

 

They said voluntary lessons in cookery would not reach those pupils

most likely to have poor eating habits.

 

The Department for Education and Skills said, from 2008, schools had

to offer lessons to pupils who wanted them.

 

In a letter to the Education Secretary, Alan Johnson, the

organisations - coming together as the Children's Food Campaign -

claim his predecessor Ruth Kelly had committed to making cookery a

compulsory part of the curriculum in England's schools.

 

Those without basic cooking skills are very likely to be condemned

to a shorter life

 

Letter to the Education Secretary, Alan Johnson

 

But the DfES said Ms Kelly had not made such an undertaking but had

welcomed recommendations by the school meals review panel that all

children should be taught food preparation and practical cooking

skills.

 

A spokesman said all pupils all pupils starting secondary school from

2008 would have an " entitlement " to these lessons, meaning that

schools would be obliged to offer them if requested.

 

'Vicious circle of ignorance'

 

But many high-profile organisations, such as the British Dental

Health Foundation, Unison, the National Obesity Forum, the British

Medical Association and Friends of the Earth, believe this does not

go far enough.

 

Their joint letter to Mr Johnson said: " It is a national scandal that

so many young people leave our schools unable to prepare a simple

meal. Poor diet is a key cause of the current obesity epidemic.

 

" And, quite simply, those without basic cooking skills are very

likely to be condemned to a shorter life because they will be left

with little alternative but to buy expensive, processed food - high

in fats, sugar and salt - and pass this pattern of behaviour onto

their children. "

 

It said, for 15 years, children had been leaving school with little

or no practical ability to prepare and cook food.

 

" Many of those children will now be parents themselves and, unless

they were lucky enough to have been taught these skills in the home,

will have been left lacking the ability to look after themselves, let

alone others in their care.

 

" There is an urgent need to break the vicious circle of ignorance and

poor diet which is maintained by our failure to give all children

this basic life skill during their school life. "

 

A spokesman for the DfES said: " We are setting a priority on teaching

children practical cooking skills.

 

" This is why we have asked the Qualifications and Curriculum

Authority to consider how to put a greater emphasis on teaching

pupils practical cooking skills in secondary schools through its

broad-ranging curriculum review.

 

" This is also why we recently announced that every pupils should have

a cooking entitlement, ensuring that schools must offer practical

cooking lessons to every pupil that wishes to learn them. "