Prime Minister John Key conceded some kids arrived at school hungry, just not that many. Photo / NZME.
It's alarming - if not insulting - for Prime Minister John Key to suggest cold-calling three low-decile schools on a single day can provide an insight into whether children are going hungry in this country.
Prior to a vote on two food-in-schools private member's bills, both of which were lost
in the vote, Mr Key asked Education Minister Hekia Parata to call the decile 1, 2 and 3 schools and ask how many children had arrived without lunch.
The answer, he says, was zero at one school in Ruatoria, one or two at Sylvia Park Primary School in Auckland, of which I am a former pupil, and about 12 at Manurewa Intermediate, a decile-one school with a roll of 711.
He conceded some kids arrived at school hungry, just not that many.
Useless data like this adds nothing to the debate. It also ignores the fact teachers at low-decile schools have, for the past few years, reported tens of thousands of pupils arriving at school hungry.
