School Food Programme has improved nutrition and attendance
Sep 04, 2005
I wish to respond to a letter published on Thursday titled<i> WFP Should Change Strategy</i>. The school feeding programe (SFP) is a big issue in countries benefiting from it.
Benon Orach,/b>
I wish to respond to a letter published on Thursday titled WFP Should Change Strategy. The school feeding programe (SFP) is a big issue in countries benefiting from it.
It entails provision of porridge for breakfast and lunch especially in primary schools. There are many stakeholders however not all the writer observed is true. For example, there is no interference with teaching activities as implied because in every implementing schools, there are SFP focal teachers, who handle food storage, serving meals, determinig pupils’ daily attendance and reporting to WFP as required.
A recent SFP monitoring exercise in all the 78 primary schools in Adjumani district indicated that enrolment almost doubled from the time the project was introduced in 2002. This data is determined from the annual enrolment figures and the daily attendance taken by the school focal persons every morning.
The allegation that pupils arrive at school at lunch time and vanish after lunch is not convincing. Meals are served using the registered morning attendance. It is the parents not pupils who deliver the firewood because it is the parent’s obligation.
Quantities to be prepared everyday in schools are weighed in correspondence to the day’s attendance, which is recorded in the food store book and the Food Utilisation Form provided by WFP, thus rubishing the allegation that teachers do not cook at home because they carry food from school. Meals are served from class to class in order to pay special attention to the younger ones in lower classes.
A joint monitoring team from the district and WFP sporadically conduct assessment on the progress of SFP. The Food For Asset (FFA) programme uses food incentives to enhance creation of lasting assets by the communities.
The market survey is complemented by building of central food stores in many sub-counties to act as a buying centre from the smallholder farmers. I agree with him that other initiatives be designed and put in place by not only WFP but also other NGOs.
Infact, the SFP has improved PLE performance, enhanced class attendance, solved time management, improved concentration in class work since pupils are assured of lunch and above all, improved the nutrition of the war- affected pupils of northern Uganda.
I am not praising the WFP and other NGOs in the northern region, but I would request people to make a thorough research before publishing such negative items that taint the images of such institutions and hinders humanitatrian service deliveries.
The writer has been a WFP volunteer
in Adjumani
I wish to respond to a letter published on Thursday titled WFP Should Change Strategy. The school feeding programe (SFP) is a big issue in countries benefiting from it.
It entails provision of porridge for breakfast and lunch especially in primary schools. There are many stakeholders however not all the writer observed is true. For example, there is no interference with teaching activities as implied because in every implementing schools, there are SFP focal teachers, who handle food storage, serving meals, determinig pupils’ daily attendance and reporting to WFP as required.
A recent SFP monitoring exercise in all the 78 primary schools in Adjumani district indicated that enrolment almost doubled from the time the project was introduced in 2002. This data is determined from the annual enrolment figures and the daily attendance taken by the school focal persons every morning.
The allegation that pupils arrive at school at lunch time and vanish after lunch is not convincing. Meals are served using the registered morning attendance. It is the parents not pupils who deliver the firewood because it is the parent’s obligation.
Quantities to be prepared everyday in schools are weighed in correspondence to the day’s attendance, which is recorded in the food store book and the Food Utilisation Form provided by WFP, thus rubishing the allegation that teachers do not cook at home because they carry food from school. Meals are served from class to class in order to pay special attention to the younger ones in lower classes.
A joint monitoring team from the district and WFP sporadically conduct assessment on the progress of SFP. The Food For Asset (FFA) programme uses food incentives to enhance creation of lasting assets by the communities.
The market survey is complemented by building of central food stores in many sub-counties to act as a buying centre from the smallholder farmers. I agree with him that other initiatives be designed and put in place by not only WFP but also other NGOs.
Infact, the SFP has improved PLE performance, enhanced class attendance, solved time management, improved concentration in class work since pupils are assured of lunch and above all, improved the nutrition of the war- affected pupils of northern Uganda.
I am not praising the WFP and other NGOs in the northern region, but I would request people to make a thorough research before publishing such negative items that taint the images of such institutions and hinders humanitatrian service deliveries.
The writer has been a WFP volunteer
in Adjumani