Recently the Nigeria government reached out to development partners in an effort to re-launch the fledging school feeding programme, seen as a panacea to reviving the fast declining school enrolment. AUGUSTINE OKEZIE, examines the attendant impact of this programme on education and the economy
At the re-launch of the home grown school feeding programme in Abuja, the supervising Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, observed that the revisit of the school feeding initiative by government, was designed to increase enrolment of pupils in the nation’s elementary schools.
The minister further added that the programme re-launch is imperative for government to resuscitate the initiative in order to re awaken the interest of state government and other stakeholders.
“For us is to achieve the secondary objective which is accelerating the attainment of gender equality in education, increase girl child enrolment, retaining and completing basic education ”
“building and strengthening capacity for effective community involvement and participation in school management”
“The Nigerian government after the launch of the Home grown school feeding initiative in 2012 by former President, Olusegun Obasanjo thought it crucial to revisit the Home grown school feeding to increase enrolment of school children and help children of poor parent fed in school”
“the initiative is to reduce school absenteeism and improve the health status of school pupils” Wike added.
The representative of the World Bank, Professor Don Bundy who was also the keynote speaker at the event noted that Nigeria was serious to develop its National School feeding programme.
“If this programme is successfully implemented by the government of Nigeria, the country would be feeding 1/5th of Africa’s population”
Professor Bundy who said every country is attempting to feed its citizens added that the programme can only be successfully implemented through multi-sectoral approach.
He explained that the approach requires other sectors like Health and Agriculture to be directly and consciously linked to the school feeding programme in a way that the food that would be needed to feed the children will be home grown.
He said the benefit of the initiative is that it will help develop pupils nutrition and health.
“the initiative would keep Nigerian children in school and also would enable them to complete their school, the programme would boast agriculture and improve the economy of any state as it will also create job and give opportunity to citizens to participate in school management”
He said the programme is of great importance to low, medium and high income earners.
Professor Bundy added that the successful implementation of the initiative in Nigeria elementary schools would position Nigeria as a nation feeding one fifth of the numbers of children in Africa.
The Executive Director of Partnership for Child development, Dr Lesley Drick, identified Good governance has key factor to the successful implementation of Home grown school feeding initiative in Nigeria.
The Home grown school feeding programme, is government driven initiative through the partnership for child development, and is currently running in over fifty countries across the world.
Osun state government’s O’MEALS’’ programme, which is generally acknowledged for its pioneering effort in the schools feeding programme, and recommended as role model for state governments and other levels of government, made an appreciable presentation at the programme re-launch
According to the state governor, MR Rauf Aregbesola, the ‘O’ Meal programme, had its humble beginning in through its inclusion by the African Governments, of locally-sourced school feeding programmes in the comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) in 2003.
He further stated that the same year also witnessed the launching of an initiative by the new partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), along with the world food programme (WAP) and the Millennium Hunger Task Force. The initiative of a pilot Home Grown School feeding and Health Programme (HGSFHP), was therefore designed to link school feeding to agricultural development through the purchase and use of locally and domestically produced food.
Nigeria being one of the 12 pilot countries invited to implement the programme, came up with the Universal Basic education (UBE) act in 2004, which provided the enabling legislative backing for the execution of the Home Grown school feeding and health programme (HGSFHP).
It will also be recalled that the federal ministry of education selected 13 states of the federation, including the federal capital territory (Abuja), to begin a phased-pilot implementation of the programme. Osun was fortunately among the selected states.
Thus the pilot primary school feeding programme in Osun state began as Osun State Home Grown school feeding and health programme in May 2006,was re-launched as O’MEALS on April 30, 2012,cutting across all the 1,375 Elementary schools in that state.
The home grown feeding programme for school pupils has the advantage of being consistent with our own government’s goals of banishing poverty, banishing hunger, creative work and wealth, creating functional education, restoring healthy living and engendering communal peace progress.
The governor further identified the objectives behind O’MEALS to include: improvement of the nutrition and health of our school children; increase in school enrolment, retention and completion; and reduction of poverty and stimulation of small and medium scale enterprises development..
On the financial implication of feeding Elementary school pupils, he disclosed that the state government spends N12.7 million every school day, while the sum of N601,400 is paid out to the 3007 community caterers as transport fares on a daily basis. The financial expenditure for the O’MEALS is shared between the state government and the constituting local government councils on a 40-60 percent ration respectively.
‘’For effective implementation, the O’MEALS programme is monitored at various levels. At one level, there are planning officers within the local government authority office who are responsible for carrying out the implementation logistics. They act as liaison between the O’MEALS office and the community caterers.
There are also the local inspectors of education who also operates at the local government authority level. Then, there are the independent monitors who are drawn from the ranks of retired civil servants, parent teachers association and community leaders. The O’MEALS secretary staff act as coordinators for the monitors’’, the governor further disclosed
The governor further identified the resultant benefits of practicing school feeding to include: increased enrolment of pupils in elementary schools.
‘’To be sure, within the first five weeks of our introduction of the O’MEALS, elementary school enrolment shot up by 38,935 pupils. Today, with Osun’s elementary school enrolment figure of almost 253,000, the implication is that of increasing our annual expenditure on O’MEALS to about N3 billion. And this does not include staff salary.
‘’The programme has likewise improved the health status of our school pupils benefiting from the programme. It has drastically reduced the incidence of school absenteeism in comparison with the pre-O’MEALS period.
As a result of the O’MEALS, the production capacities of the farmer-suppliers of farm produce has been boosted, with corresponding increased prosperity for small holder farmers.
The multiplier effects of the economic and material empowerment of different segment of society, consequent upon the implementation of O’MEALS, has had a resounding impact on the lives of our people and economy of Osun’’
