Tesco accused of giving private school pupils preference when entering store

Credit: This story was first seen on the Daily Mirror

A university professor claims Tesco supermarket is discriminating against state school kids by making them queue outside – while private school pupils are allowed to walk straight in, the Daily Mirror reports.

Prof Neil Pollock claimed his son and other pupils at the council school in Edinburgh are forced to stand behind a barrier – and have to wait to be admitted in small groups.

But the respected academic alleges that children from £11,577-a-year George Watson’s College – easily identifiable by their maroon blazers – are allowed straight in to the Bruntsfield Metro store unchallenged.

Professor Pollock, head of innovation and social informatics at Edinburgh University, sends his son to Boroughmuir High – awarded the Scottish state school of the year in 2012.

The 49-year-old posted a series of tweets complaining about alleged discrimination by Tesco.

The first said: ‘Tesco makes one set of school kids queue outside, whilst another school walks in. One is state, the other private. Which one has to queue?’

Tesco replied on Twitter that their store manager “said the private school normally have a lesser amount of children which is quicker and easier for the store”.

Prof Pollock wrote back: “It may be easier for the store but it is discrimination. Everybody should queue or nobody should queue.”

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