Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Dr Ramatu Aliyu, said on Friday that 120,300 pupils across the six Area Councils would benefit from the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme in the FCT.
Aliyu, who made this known while inaugurating the programme in Karu Model School, in Abuja, revealed that the pupils are drawn from the 626 public primary schools within the six area councils of the territory.
She said that the programme was designed to improve the health and educational outcomes of public primary school pupils.
According to her, the programme will link local farmers to the education sector by facilitating their access to the school feeding market.
She assured that parents, teachers, traditional and community leaders who are the gatekeepers, and the vendors who would prepare the meals would be carried along in the full implementation of the programme.
Aliyu said to ensure efficient service delivery, a feedback mechanism involving the head teachers, health teachers and the class teachers of each school had been put in place, as well as the process of training the head teachers, health teachers and class teachers in each school.
“The programme is targeting about 120,300 pupils that will be drawn from 626 public primary schools across the six Area Councils of the FCT.
” Henceforth, pupils will be fed once daily with meals containing the six required nutrients from primary one to three.
“I want to assure you that all stakeholders parents, teachers, traditional and community leaders who are the gatekeepers, and the vendors who will prepare the meals will be carried along in the full implementation of this programme,” Aliyu stressed.
Aliyu, who stated that the programme in FCT was for pupils in LEAs, however called on community leaders and all stakeholders in the FCT to assist the Federal Government in lifting the burdens off indigent parents who could not afford balanced diets for their wards.
Earlier, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouk, said the programmes was designed to achieve the national objectives of reducing poverty and taking a 100 million Nigerians out of poverty by creating opportunity, increasing resilience, promoting equity and stimulating growth in the country.
Farouk also stated that the National Home Grown School Feeding programme was one of the four cardinal programmes of National Social Investment Programme.
She added that the main objective of the programme was to provide one nutritious, balanced meal, each school day to pupils in class one to three in public primary schools across the country.
“The programme is designed to increase enrolment rates by mopping up the huge numbers of out of school children in Nigeria while tackling school age malnutrition.
” As part of the value chain, the programme also empowers the cooks and provides a sustainable income for small holder farmers, thereby stimulating growth and productivity around the communities in the states”. (NAN)
DISCLAIMER
The OPINION / COLUMN is authored by independent contributors to the National Accord Newspaper. While contributors adhere to our editorial guidelines, they are not employed by the National Accord Newspaper. The perspectives and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of the National Accord Newspaper or its staff.
Leave a Reply