What has become of the school-feeding programme?

However, many interventions have been ongoing in effort to develop and standardize the education system in the country.The international community has been advocating that nations should ensure all children have equal right to education by increasing access and enrolment.One of such interventions is the school-feeding programme set to attract children to school and augment their […]

However, many interventions have been ongoing in effort to develop and standardize the education system in the country.
The international community has been advocating that nations should ensure all children have equal right to education by increasing access and enrolment.
One of such interventions is the school-feeding programme set to attract children to school and augment their learning.
Nigeria adopted the school feeding programme in 2005 as a complementary initiative to other educational programmes of UNICEF which focus on the promotion of  access, enrolment and retention of children in schools.
The launch of the major national programme aimed at providing one meal per day to all pupils during school days was kicked off from Kuje, a suburb of Abuja, in the Federal Capital Territory by the Federal Ministry of Education with its pilot phase. It is to benefit 2.5 million pupils in twelve different states of the Federation.
It would be recalled that former President Olusegun Obasanjo at the launching of the programme had stated that: “I foresee a day when Nigeria will be a nation with well-nourished and healthy children, happy and eager to attend school and complete their basic education in a friendly, conducive, attractive and stimulating learning environment.”
However this assertion is yet to be realized as millions of Nigerian children are out of school and others are learning under an environment that is not conducive.
The Director of Press, Federal Ministry of Education, Mr. Olu Lipede told Daily Trust that the programme was an initiative that was to be carried out at the state and local government levels. He said the programme is set to increase enrolment of pupils in school since the state is the sole owners of primary and secondary schools.
Lipede said the programme was shut down by the states who failed to show enthusiasm in adopting the programme and that the federal level cannot compel the states if they are not interested.
He said: “You can’t compel them if they don’t put down their counterparts funding there is nothing that can be done, the federal part is lying down in the bank and can only be used if the state government bring their programmes and ask for it.”
It would be recalled that the Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr Dikko Suleiman during a meeting in Abuja on “Access and Retention in Basic Education: The Challenge of Out of School Children in Nigeria” said the federal government is investing heavily to ensure that the out-of-school syndrome is a thing of the past in Nigeria through the provision of access and equity in basic education.
He said from 2005 to April 2014, the commission received N247, 34 billion as matching grants and disbursed N198.54 billion to states and FCT, representing 80.27% access while sum of N48.79 billion remained un-accessed.
According to him, states and FCT can access 1st quarter, 2014 allocation of N238,074.324.33 by providing equivalent as counterpart fund and meeting other draw down conditions.
Daily Trust check revealed that the programme was not adopted by many states and the few states that adopted the programme had to stop due to challenges.
Head Teacher of Science Primary school Kuje, where the programme was launched, Hon. Philip Bitrus said the feeding program was going on fine until it failed a few years before he was posted to the school as head teacher in 2008.
Bitrus said he cannot say why the program was no longer functioning but noted that it could be a result of lack of funds or mismanagement of the funds or other reasons which he might not know.
According to him, the program came with advantages because when the feeding was on the population of the students increased.
He said: “Students who were from poor background and couldn’t afford 3 square meals had a place where they could get food to eat, but when it was stopped they also stopped coming because they needed to go and hustle for their meal.”
In Katsina state, school feeding program was not adopted by the state government but rather it introduced Almajiri education system which does not incorporate Western education but is purely a move to take off the Almajiri from the streets.
Some of the pupils spoken to said they are not even aware of school feeding scheme as they go about to beg for food daily and take some back to others at their respective compounds.
For Taraba State, government also failed to adopt the programme both at the lower and upper level. A source reveals that some schools within the states adopted the method mostly in secondary schools.
She said it is not a free programme as the students are meant to pay five hundred naira which is usually paid along their fees.
Visit by our reporter to some public schools in Kaduna state showed that the state government has not adopted the school feeding programme as no public school whether primary or secondary is feeding its pupils nor students except those in the boarding schools.
A staff in the State Ministry of Education who pleaded anonymity also confirmed that Kaduna is not running feeding programme in its schools and its not contended in the present government agenda.In Kano state it was gathered that the feeding programme has presently been suspended due to the fasting period. However, it was reliably gathered that before the suspension the programme has been facing hitches of non-payment to contractors which according to sources, demeaned the programme.
However, in one of the public primary school visited, a source  told Daily Trust that the school had recorded about 40% increase in pupil enrolment due to the feeding and that most of the pupils avoided truancy so as not to miss the free food.
He said: “Indeed the feeding programme has really increased the number of enrolment in our schools, and also the level of retention has increased as pupils never want to miss classes because missing classes means missing the free feeding,”
It could be recalled that Kano State government has revealed that it is spending N3.3 billion annually in providing free meals to pupils in public primary schools and  that the initiative has brought about sudden increase in the school enrolment figures from 1.24 million pupils to about three million pupils.
A primary three pupil Hassan Umar told our reporter that, should the free feeding stopped, he will not hesitate to revert to hawking which was what he had left to be  in school.
Meanwhile, our check reveals that Bauchi, Kaduna, and others also did not adopt the programme
The only state implementing the school feeding system consistently are Osun and Kano even though it is marred by challenge of funding.
A director from the ministry who didn’t want her name on the print said the failure of states to implement the school feeding programme contributed to the failure of achieving the EFA targets.
She said the programme will without doubt increase enrolment but retention is also very important which means it has to be sustained.
“There is no way we can achieve the standard we want in enrolment and access if all the possible ways of intervening is being neglected,” she said.
She also implored states to see ways of empowering their people by giving them education which is very vital to their existence.