A full immersion reo Māori school in South Auckland says its successful results are in large part down to students having a full puku through the free lunches programme.
Principal of Te Kura Māori o Ngā Tapuwae in Māngere East Arihia Stirling said the programme has meant children are more focused and the number of students having to work to help pay for family basics has fallen.
The Ka Ora, Ka Ako programme provides free healthy lunches to more than 220,000 students — about a quarter of all Kiwi students.
Stirling's comments come as ACT Party leader and Associate Minister of Education David Seymour is set to review the school lunch programme, having previously said it was "wasteful".
Speaking to Breakfast this morning, Stirling said she urges Seymour to "do a U-turn".
"Food insecurity in homes is a real thing that leads to the anxiety of the children that we serve.
"We understand that the cost of living is rising day by day."
"What I say to the Associate Minister of Education is do not take the food out of our children's mouths, take it from somewhere else. This is so needed in the communities we serve and my school is an example of that. Through healthy minds and healthy spirits, pukus that are full, we get results like this," she said.
Stirling also urged Seymour to "give it more time" so he can see the full effect of the programme.
Seymour also appeared on Breakfast this morning, saying Te Kura Māori o Ngā Tapuwae is just one school that's had good results, and New Zealand needs a "higher standard of debate".
The ACT party leader said he’s pushing ahead with his review of the free lunches programme despite criticism. (Source: Breakfast)
"We actually need to deal in the wider facts here. We've had this programme for the last few years. The number of kids going to school is at an all time low. The NCEA results, once we look at all schools, is at an all time low and unfortunately those figures have gotten worse for students from poorer homes ie the ones that the free school lunches programme has been targeted at," he said.
"So if you zoom out for a moment and stop looking at 'well we've found one example that fits our evidence', and actually ask what's going on overall, the programme has been introduced at a time when the results have been getting worse.
"The Ministry of Education, despite spending $350 million a year, does not have any hard data and the Treasury have said this, the other government department that monitors spending, any hard evidence that it's making a difference for kids across the board."
Breakfast host Daniel Faitaua challenged Seymour, saying that there's evidence from the University of Auckland, who reviewed Ka Ora, Ka Ako in June, and found it "enriched school environments, boosted local economies, enhanced availability and affordability of healthy foods".
But Seymour said: "And with respect again we need to raise the standards of debate here, because if they were doing a serious study, they would have asked for the schools that received these free school lunches 'can we see improvements in attendance, can we see improvement in achievement'.
"Now the Ministry of Education under the previous government when they decided to spend all this money, went off and did five different studies and none of them asked the basic question, 'if we compare the students that got the free school lunches with the students that didn't, have we seen an improvement in kids getting to school and kids achieving'."
When presented with other studies on the topic, Seymour reiterated: "We have to raise the standards of debate.
"It's certainly true kids being well looked after, well nourished are going to do better overall, but of course kids that are missing meals potentially have other problems in the home... "
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