Dr. Elaine Mooney:

The Chairman has made a key point about primary schools. The evidence shows that children who receive age-appropriate nutritional education have better quality diets. We are saying that the earlier children are taught food skills, the better. We propose that modules of home economics be integrated into subjects that already exist in the curriculum, called SPHE, or social, personal and health education, in the primary school. At the moment primary school teachers teach nutrition during that subject. We have carried out island of Ireland research, funded by SCoTENS, the Standing Conference on Teacher Education, North and South, which looked at primary school teachers' experiences of teaching nutrition and food related matters on the curriculum. Overwhelmingly the teachers would say that, of all information, it is the most relevant and most worthwhile, and the students enjoy it. The teachers specifically said that to enhance teaching in that area, they need to teach practical food. They called for classroom-appropriate resources as opposed to kitchen-appropriate resources. It would not cost the enormous amount one might imagine, because the type of work the teachers would like to do would require tabletop appliances, a fridge, a hand-held blender or a microwave to enhance the experience in terms of active learning methodologies. The teachers felt that it would be really worthwhile and would not involve huge costs. Ideally, we would love to say that every primary school should be equipped with a kitchen, but that is not feasible. However, it is very feasible to equip them with tabletop appliances.