Hunger drives kids home
A lack of food at schools has led to children dropping out.
Rural schools in the Omusati, Ohangwena and Oshikoto regions have reported a significant number of learner dropouts after halting the school feeding programme.
The permanent secretary of the education ministry, Sanet Steenkamp, confirmed that the ministry had suspended the school feeding programme because of transport problems. Steenkamp confirmed that the programme was there to keep learners in school.
Schools in these regions started recording a high rate of absenteeism when the feeding programme was stopped. Over time that led to a high school dropout rate.
The schools had registered a large number of learners at the start of the previous academic year, which slowly dwindled as the year progressed.
This was also confirmed by the governor of the Oshikoto Region, Henock Kankoshi, last week. He said 1 768 learners had dropped out of school in the region last year.
Kankoshi said most of them dropped out in the third term after the school feeding programme was suspended.
“The school feeding programme for Omusati, Ohangwena and Oshikoto was suspended last year due to transportation problems, but it resumed this academic year. The programme is crucial because it reduces absenteeism and hunger and school dropouts,” Steenkamp said.
Not all principals agreed with Steenkamp, saying that the feeding programme had not yet resumed this year and that was keeping children at home.
“The programme was suspended after the ministry failed to pay the transport companies that delivered food to the circuit offices. We understand that this has not been solved yet and we are still faced with the challenge of absenteeism,” one school principal told Namibian Sun.
“Some parents started coming to school to enquire what happened to the feeding programme. They are saying that their children started complaining that there was hunger at school and that is why they were not attending. As the period without food continues, they eventually dropped out of school altogether.”
Steenkamp told Namibian Sun that the national school feeding programme was introduced as an intervention to increase enrolment rates and reduce absenteeism.
The programme was first introduced in 1996 with support from the World Food Programme (WFP).
“The aim is to improve access to education, enhance performance and respond to the nutritional and general health of children,” she said.
“This programme is effective because it relieves short-term hunger and thus enables learners to attend school and pay attention in classes. The meal provided at school is a maize blend consisting of maize meal, sugar, salt and added protein.”
Steenkamp said this year 330 000 learners and 1 398 schools were registered as beneficiaries of the programme.
ILENI NANDJATO
The permanent secretary of the education ministry, Sanet Steenkamp, confirmed that the ministry had suspended the school feeding programme because of transport problems. Steenkamp confirmed that the programme was there to keep learners in school.
Schools in these regions started recording a high rate of absenteeism when the feeding programme was stopped. Over time that led to a high school dropout rate.
The schools had registered a large number of learners at the start of the previous academic year, which slowly dwindled as the year progressed.
This was also confirmed by the governor of the Oshikoto Region, Henock Kankoshi, last week. He said 1 768 learners had dropped out of school in the region last year.
Kankoshi said most of them dropped out in the third term after the school feeding programme was suspended.
“The school feeding programme for Omusati, Ohangwena and Oshikoto was suspended last year due to transportation problems, but it resumed this academic year. The programme is crucial because it reduces absenteeism and hunger and school dropouts,” Steenkamp said.
Not all principals agreed with Steenkamp, saying that the feeding programme had not yet resumed this year and that was keeping children at home.
“The programme was suspended after the ministry failed to pay the transport companies that delivered food to the circuit offices. We understand that this has not been solved yet and we are still faced with the challenge of absenteeism,” one school principal told Namibian Sun.
“Some parents started coming to school to enquire what happened to the feeding programme. They are saying that their children started complaining that there was hunger at school and that is why they were not attending. As the period without food continues, they eventually dropped out of school altogether.”
Steenkamp told Namibian Sun that the national school feeding programme was introduced as an intervention to increase enrolment rates and reduce absenteeism.
The programme was first introduced in 1996 with support from the World Food Programme (WFP).
“The aim is to improve access to education, enhance performance and respond to the nutritional and general health of children,” she said.
“This programme is effective because it relieves short-term hunger and thus enables learners to attend school and pay attention in classes. The meal provided at school is a maize blend consisting of maize meal, sugar, salt and added protein.”
Steenkamp said this year 330 000 learners and 1 398 schools were registered as beneficiaries of the programme.
ILENI NANDJATO
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