Parents urges FG to suspend Home-grown school feeding

The Chairman of the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) in the FCT, Alhaji Usman Abubakar, has called on the federal government to suspend the Home-grown School Feeding Programme in the territory. Abubakar, who spoke via telephone with our reporter yesterday, said ‘‘the lack of transparency in the process of distributing the food to children at home […]

The Chairman of the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) in the FCT, Alhaji Usman Abubakar, has called on the federal government to suspend the Home-grown School Feeding Programme in the territory.

Abubakar, who spoke via telephone with our reporter yesterday, said ‘‘the lack of transparency in the process of distributing the food to children at home would mar the programme’’.

He said non-beneficiaries of the programme were those who lined up to collect the food while those who were the supposed beneficiaries were left out.

He further explained that the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development did not identify the authentic parents of the pupils captured for free meals programme since it did not involve the heads of primary schools and the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) in the territory.

Abubakar said the best way to achieve transparency is for the government to wait until schools resume.

He added that many parents have travelled to their villages with their children.

It would be recalled that the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Faruq, last Wednesday flagged -off the home-grown school feeding programme for primary school pupils  in the FCT, in Kuje.