Chef Gráinne O’Keeffe has started an online petition campaigning to place cookery and nutrition classes onto the second level curriculum.
Head chef and proprietor of Mae in Dublin’s Ballsbridge launched a campaign on March 2, calling for the inclusion of cookery and nutrition classes into the secondary school curriculum.
“I believe that every child from every background should be taught nutrition and cookery in school,” O’Keeffe wrote on Twitter.
The chef went on to add that labelling the optional class as home economics means “that most children won’t opt for this class”.
Criticising the current home economics curriculum for including “outdated skills” like stitching and tye-dying, O’Keeffe is advocating for skills like “that matter” to be added, listing examples like nutritional analysis, cooking, identifying ingredients and learning how/ where to purchase ingredients.
https://twitter.com/GrainneoKeefe/status/1499103334762004485
O’Keeffe added that this class should be mandatory across second-level pupils, with a “curriculum overseen by professionals in the cooking industry” with the ingredients used in classes “should be subsidised”.
Rolling out her proposals addressed to Education and Health ministers O’Keeffe maintains would “benefit children later in life.”
The online petition is aiming for 500 signatures and at the time of writing is at 315, for more information about it click here.
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Lead image grainneokeefe/IG
