Free meals: Bauchi braces for influx of pupils

The Home Grown School Feeding Programme introduced by the Federal Government is said to have provided pupils with nutritionally balanced meal and increased school attendance in Bauchi State. Records at the Bauchi State Social Investment Programmes Office (BSSIPO) indicate that the programme started in Bauchi on August 1, 2017 with 400,000 pupils. However, by May […]

The Home Grown School Feeding Programme introduced by the Federal Government is said to have provided pupils with nutritionally balanced meal and increased school attendance in Bauchi State.

Records at the Bauchi State Social Investment Programmes Office (BSSIPO) indicate that the programme started in Bauchi on August 1, 2017 with 400,000 pupils.

However, by May 2018, there were 8,141 cooks feeding 651,110 pupils in over 2,000 schools across the state.

The Special Assistant to Governor Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar on Social Investment Programmes (SIPs) and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Mansur Manu Soro, said the number of pupils in schools increased because of the free meals.

He said pupils were being transferred from private to public schools by their parents while fresh enrolment also significantly increased.

The Speaker, Bauchi State House of Assembly, Kawuwa Shehu Damina, said free meals have attracted  more pupils to schools and that credible information indicated a threefold increase in the number of primary school pupils in Wahu and Papa communities of Darazo Local Government Area.

According to the Jama’are LGA Focal Person of the programme, Malam Umar Ishaq, the free meals have encouraged parents to send their children to public schools while pupil concentration has improved in class.

The governor’s aide, Soro, disclosed that, protein suppliers were engaged to distribute beef to all the food vendors through 86 designated centres across the state.

He further stated that 125 cows were slaughtered in the state every week to supply meat to pupils and that the hitherto moribund state owned meat factory has been revived.  Also, agricultural businesses were boosted through inclusion of local farmers in school feeding chain.

“The use of weighing scales at all the distribution centres is also made compulsory,” he said.

He disclosed that protein distribution centres were located in areas across the state where cooks went to go and collect beef and fish.

“In accordance with the state food menu vetted by the Ministry of Health and approved by the governor, beef will be supplied to cooks on Sunday against the meals of Mondays and Tuesdays and fish on Wednesdays for the meal of Thursdays.

“Nutrition focal persons, public health and veterinary officers at the LGA level are mandated to ensure hygiene compliance at the distribution centres, anti and post mortem of livestock and cooks’ fitness,” he said.

He added that cooks could access loan to buy kitchen utensils.

Governor Mohammed Abubakar recently approved the recommendation of the State School Feeding Multi-Sectoral Team for the review of cook-pupil ratio to a maximum number of 80 pupils per cook.

Over 3,000 more cooks are said to have been engaged to cater for the increasing number of pupils in the over 2,000 schools bringing the number of cooks to over 8,000.

The 5,238 cooks initially recruited for the programme were provided with uniforms by the governor’s wife, Hajiya Hadiza Mohammed Abubakar.

According to the state meal time table, pupils would be served jollof rice, beef and oranges on Mondays; rice, beans, stew and oranges on Tuesdays; while beans porridge, bread and a slice of watermelon would be served on Wednesdays.

Boiled yam, iced fish, stew and orange is to be served on Thursdays while moi-moi, half egg and a slice of watermelon would be served on Fridays.

The BSSIPO however noted that fruits can be substituted according to season.

Nevertheless, in spite of its success, the programme is said to be facing widespread allegations of sharp practices. Teachers allegedly struggled to eat before the pupils while others were accused of taking bribes from erring and truant cooks.

An official of BSSIPO said following the review of a monitoring and evaluation report undertaken, 11 women who received funds but failed to feed the pupils were questioned.

A source also said there was bias in the recruitment of the vendors.

But Manu Soro said recruitment of vendors was “always transparent.”

He recalled that the programme was a campaign promise of the Buhari administration to tackle malnutrition in children, increase pupils enrolment in schools, create jobs and stimulate agricultural economy in the implementing states.

Checks at most of the schools in Bauchi metropolis revealed that they were facing the challenges of accommodating more children due to increased enrolment.

A record of the increase in enrolment figures obtained from the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) indicated that there are 4,364 primary and Junior Secondary schools in the state out of which over 2,000 are covered in the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme.

According to the records, the schools have an enrolment figure of 1,079,105 and 25,827 teachers. 

The board according to its spokesman, Mohammed Abdullahi, is making preparation for more intervention was on toward meeting the school enrolment increase in the state.

However, the feeding programme in Bauchi State has not kicked off since resumption from the school break.