Reviving school feeding programme

Last week, the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, reiterated the determination of the All Progressive Congress (APC) led federal government to reintroduce the school feeding programme at the primary level. Under the programme, pupils will be fed a nutritious meal once every day of school. The programme according to experts, is a laudable initiative that will […]

Last week, the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, reiterated the determination of the All Progressive Congress (APC) led federal government to reintroduce the school feeding programme at the primary level. Under the programme, pupils will be fed a nutritious meal once every day of school.
The programme according to experts, is a laudable initiative that will greatly reduce the number of out of school children in the country and also has the potentials of boosting school enrolment, attendance and retention of pupils as a recent report by UNESCO said Nigeria has over 9 million out of school children.
But this is not the first time the school feeding programme is being introduced in the country. In 2005, the federal government in collaboration with development partners developed and launched the Home Grown School Feeding and Health Program (HGSFHP).
The Home Grown School Feeding and Health Program launched by President Obasanjo was to support government action to deliver cost effective school feeding program in the country.
It had the target of alleviating short-term hunger thereby increasing the attention and concentration of pupils, motivate parents to enroll their children in school and have them attend regularly as well as increase community involvement in schools, particularly where programs depend on the community to prepare and serve meals to children.
But after the fanfare and merriment, the programme was abandoned after a few months. Government never gave reasons for shutting down the programme but school operators said it was capital intensive, mismanaged, abused and left behind a lot of debts. Some states of the federation on their own introduced the programme but fell along the way leaving only Osun and Kano even though the programme in both states was marred by challenges of funding and inconsistencies.
Why it lasted, Kano was able to raise its enrolment figure from 1.2 million pupils to over 3 million as a result of the feeding introduced at all public primary schools but it cost it over N3.3 billion annually.
The federal government determination to revive the school feeding programme has attracted comments from both supporters and critics who are of the view that the inherited empty treasury by government would not be able to found the programme.
There are over 60,000 public primary schools across the country with pupils numbering over 15 million and the cost of feeding each of the pupils a day would run into billions of naira. The concern is whether feeding is the most important challenge facing primary education in the country and has government reviewed and found answers to why the programme failed in the past?
Agreed that the school feeding programme was one of the campaign promises of the APC to Nigerians but funding the programme to ensure its sustainability is more important to Nigerians than rushing to fulfil a promise. As a new government, the need for a national education summit should be considered to provide experts and stakeholders the opportunity to x-ray the educational sector and articulate viable and sustainable options for government to implement rather than start a programme that will be jettisoned in another few months.
There are many issues that require urgent attention in the education sector such as infrastructure decay as nearly half of the enrolled pupils across the nation do not have desks, chairs, writing materials or roof over their heads during classes.
Teachers who are the backbone of the system lacked training and retraining and in most states they are owed as much as seven months’ salary. Although the VP has said that the policy will attract investment to the tune of N980 billion, create jobs, and raise food production as well as investment in the country, former President Olusegun Obasanjo said that much while launching the same programme in 2005. How well has government prepared the farmers that will supply the needed staple so that the programme doesn’t result in massive importation of food products and granting of unnecessary waivers thereby denying government revenues.
Government should involve parents, civil societies and non-governmental organisations in the implementation of the programme to ensure that all loose ends and challenges experienced in the previous attempt are properly addressed. Some of the children lured into the programme in the past are today among the drop out or out of school. Therefore, attempt to revive it must be carefully planned to win the confidence of the children.