Options for school feeding up for debate

By Conan Businge

The education ministry has finalised a report to be presented to the Cabinet soon, proposing eight options for providing lunch to school-going children. 

The options include maintaining the parents’ provision of packed lunch, children returning home for lunch, parents giving their children money to buy snacks, voluntary cash contributions by parents or parents cultivating communal land to provide schools with food.

The other alternatives are the Government providing meals to all pupils or changing the school timetable so that children can study up to lunchtime and go home.   

Before presenting it to the Cabinet, the education ministry and World Food Programme had done studies on school feeding alternatives and sent the results to the finance ministry for costing. 

“We have already got the certificate of financial implications from the finance ministry and the memo will be presented in the Cabinet soon. Discussions are still ongoing to ensure that all school-going children have lunch at school, since parents are failing to fully take on their responsibility,” the education minister, Jessica Alupo,                                         said. 

However, she warned that it is very costly for the Government to fully take on the responsibility of feeding children. “It is a very costly venture which the Government cannot directly take on,” Alupo explained.  

Each of the alternatives has implications. Dr. Daniel Nkaada, the Commissioner for Primary Education in the ministry, says all will be tabled. 

She noted that several parents were failing to feed their children because some did not have food.