Last January 18, Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai launched the free feeding programme for 1.8 million pupils in public primary schools. Some praise the initiative; others give it the thumbs down. ABDULGAFAR ALABELEWE reports
January 18, the first day of the second term of the 2015/2016 session, brought change to public primary schools in Kaduna State. It was the day the Kaduna State government toed the path of Osun State government to provide free mid-day meals for the 1.8 million pupils of its public primary schools
Governor Nasir El-Rufai launched the school feeding programme at the Aliyu Makama Road Primary School in Barnawa area of Kaduna metropolis, where he also joined the pupils to eat.
El-Rufai said 60 per cent of the cost of the programme is being re-imbursed by the Office of the Vice-President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo. The initiative is also getting technical support from The Imperial College London’s Partnership for Child Development.
He acknowledged the enormity of the responsibility the government had taken by adopting the project, which costs N90 million per day at N50 per meal. However, El-Rufai pledged his commitment to ensuring its success despite challenges? because of its benefits to the pupils in terms of nutrition and enrolment, and to the Kaduna people in terms of job creation for farmers, suppliers and caterers.
“Every school day, the Kaduna State Government will be providing a meal for 1.8million primary school pupils. It is an unprecedented undertaking in this state, but one that we solemnly pledged to do when we were campaigning. It is a challenge in terms of its scale, cost and the logistics required to deliver the meals every day. But our children deserve this, and more,” El-Rufai said at the launch.
It only took only a few days into the project for the teething problems to start emerging – enrolment shot up and contractors struggled to cope. Also, corruption soon crept into the disbursement of funds to contractors to implement the programme.
By the third day, schools were reporting that demand had over-stripped supply. In one school in Sabon-Gari Local Government Area, Bomo Primary School, after feeding 1,235 pupils formally enrolled in the school, 55 pupils were left.
Teachers at Meyeye One Primary School in Markafi Local Government also reported that many more than the 1,322 pupils had to be fed. The story was not different in other schools.
From figures received from all over the state, the Commissioner for Education, Shehu Adamu-Danfulani, said that the enrolment rate had increased by about 64 per cent. The teachers found that the population explosion was as a result of pupils sending siblings to join registered pupils in school.
By the end of the first week, teachers at Local Education Authority (LEA) Primary School, Maiduguri Road told The Nation found that the school’s population increased by 400 pupils. Similarly, at Kabala Costain LEA Primary School, the population had grown from 1,200 to 1,850.
The Nation also observed that the authorities seemed to have found solution to the population problem. This is because the lists of newly enrolled primary school pupils from all the schools have been forwarded to the state government through the State Universal Basic Education Board.
Assistant Head Teacher (who refused to give his name) Kabala Costain LEA Primary School told this reporter that the food now goes round all the pupils.
“The food has been going round. We sometimes get remnant of food from LEA Ja’afaru Estate to give to our pupils,” he said.
In addition to now being able to cater for the additional 400 pupils that have been enrolled at LEA Primary School, its enrolment officer (names withheld) said the school has found ways to make the pupils stay in school after the meals.
She said that at the start of the programme, some pupils left the school after eating. To address that problem, the school started serving the pupils in the classroom.
“When we found that the children left the school after leaving, we adopted the idea of serving them in the classroom, while lessons continue after the breakfast,” she said.
The state is also addressing the problem of corruption that caused hitches early in the programme, particularly in Giwa, Jaba and Kachia Local Government Areas (LGA) where the programme did not take off as expected due to the vendors’ inability to access the funds.
The development led to suspension of a senior education official in Zaria LGA for tampering with funds meant for the programme’s food vendors.
Adamu-Danfulani said the officer is being investigated.
He said:”Based on our arrangement, the money for the vendors would be deposited weekly in banks where each of the vendors’ cooperative societies opened their account.
“The heads of the cooperative societies will thereafter access the money and distribute same to each vendor accordingly, based on the number of pupils expected to be fed in a week at N50 per plate.
“But it was alleged that the suspended officer gathered all the heads of the cooperative societies within the local government in his office.
“He collected the money from them and was personally sharing it to the vendors which lasted up to the middle of Monday night, thereby affecting the implementation of the programme in Zaria.
“That is not his responsibility, and therefore, he is suspended to enable the ministry carry out full investigation into the matter.”
He added that other LGAs where such cases were reported are also under investigation, adding that any official found involved in such practices would also be prosecuted.
He also said the ministry had received allegations that some of the heads of the cooperative societies collect money and disbursed to the vendors in bits or in some cases divert the money to their friends instead of the vendors.
He said that some of the women are already in police net under investigation and would be charged to court if found wanting.
While the programme has attracted praises in some quarters, it has been criticized by some people. The most prominent critic has been Senator Danjuma La’ah, who represents the Southern Kaduna Senatorial District in the National Assembly.
La’ah, in a statement, described the free feeding programme as a misplaced priority considering that many public schools lack basic facilities. He said the programme was not sustainable.
“There is no way the feeding programme can be sustainable in Kaduna State when the targeted pupils are about two million and are expected to be fed on daily basis. So, it is a political gimmick and I am not in support of it. I therefore call on the government to do the right things for our education system to move forward instead of spending public resources on what is not tenable among the citizenry,” he said.
However, a Kaduna-based Nutritionist, Mrs. Hajara Yahaya, said the programme would go a long way to boost nutrition status of children, which is a problem in northern Nigeria.
“Some documented comparative studies have shown dramatic effects of school food programme on attendance and school achievements. Low anthropometric measurement, that is, height for age, weight for height and head circumference is associated with poor school achievements. Similarly, Iron deficiency anaemia, missing breakfast and helminthic infections, all of which are nutritional disorders have negative effects on school performance.
“So, malnutrition hinders cognitive development and it is one of the contributing factors to generally poor school performance among children from low socio-economic communities, who are obviously the majority in Nigeria and Northern Nigeria in particular.
“So, it is natural that if appropriate correction of nutrition deficiencies is done, it can lead to measurable improvement in cognition, and even in situation of good nutritional status, the brain can be very sensitive to short-term fluctuation of glucose availability,” she said.
On his part, El-Rufai said the government has other plans to improve education in the state, and is not just focused on school feeding.
He said: “School feeding is a separate plan of our initiative to expand access to education, to ensure that every child can have nine years of free, decent basic education, no matter the income level of their parents.
“We began our education programme with the recruitment of teachers for core subject areas, conducted a needs-assessment to identify how we can strengthen the capacity of current teachers and then announced the removal of all bureaucratic impediments to the career advancement and sense of fulfillment of professional teachers in the public school system. We made it clear that a professional teacher can rise to Grade Level 17, without having to stop being a teacher.
“Having taken steps to raise the morale and capacity of teachers as the frontline workers in delivering quality education, the government began addressing the question of the physical condition of the theatre in which they work: the schools.
“We inherited a baleful legacy of dilapidated schools, inadequate classrooms, and no furniture for 50 per cent of the pupils. The schools also often lacked water and toilet facilities.
“The APC government of Kaduna State responded by launching a school rehabilitation programme. It is a massive commitment to fix the more than 4,000 public primary schools in the state and transform them into conducive places for the delivery of quality education. We will strive to complete the rehabilitation within our term of office.”
