Free Food In Schools
By Anza Philips, Abuja Bureau
Monday, October 03, 2005
A new national school feeding programme piloted by the Nassarawa State government takes off
President Olusegun Obasanjo, his host Governor Abudullahi Adamu of Nassarawa State and dignitaries put protocol aside and danced freely in Laminga village of Nassarawa State, Tuesday, September 27, 2005 during the launching of the pilot scheme of the National School Feeding Programme in Nigeria.
The programme, conceived by the Federal Government as part of the reform agenda in the education sector is part of the millennium development goal, MDG. The Universal Basic Education Act 2004 also provides for the initiative. It is aimed at the provision of free meals that are nutritionally adequate, able to meet the health needs of the child as well as reduce hunger during school hours. Though Nassarawa State has piloted the scheme, the implementation of the programme is expected to be replicated in primary schools throughout the counrty.
The specific objective of the programme includes the eradication of hunger among children; improvement of nutritional status of school children in primary and junior secondary schools; and the increase of environment and retention of school children. Other objectives of the programme include to enhance the performance of children in sustainable educational development, the reduction of morbidity and mortality rates among school children and the stimulation of local food production and partnerships with shareholders.
The idea was sequel to a presidential forum in June last year during which the president challenged the Nassarawa State government to pilot the implementation of the programmes. The success story of Nassarawa State in the pilot implementation provided the impetus for an expanded national stakeholders workshop on the Home Grown School Feeding and Health Programme, HGSFHP, held in Lafia from August 29-31 this year under the leadership of the national steering committee preparatory to the Tuesday flag off. Adamu was the chairman of the committee.
The workshop was intended to enable the participants learn first hand from the experience of Nassarawa State and actually get a feel of the strides made by the government and its people.
The political will and total commitment of the Federal Government on the new initiative is anchored on three major props. Local sourcing of supplies, involvement of school communities and elaborate partnership and strong collaboration of all stakeholders.
As agreed at the workshop, the programme as launched on Tuesday takes off for one academic year beginning from September this year to July 2006. Twelve states will be involved with two from each of the six geo-political zones.
Sokoto and Kebbi states from North - West, Bauchi and Yobe from North -East, while Nassarawa and Kogi State are from North-Central. From the South - West,we have Osun and Ogun while Enugu and Imo are chosen from South- East. Rivers and Cross River States from South - South completes the list.
Adamu in an address at the occasion said the feeding programme was designed to specifically prevent and correct nutrient deficiencies among pre-school and school-going children. To remedy these deficiencies and free this childen from the grips of wasting diseases such as Kwashiokor, Adamu said experts recommended a nutritional liquid food that will effectively balance the consumption of staple foods like maize, millet, rice, cassava and other starchy foods with high carbohydrate content with Nutri-Sip.
The programme he said does not envisage the serving of formal meals such as eba, amala, tuwo, pounded yam or rice to the children. A 250ml of ultra-high temperature heated Nutri-Sip contains 30 traces elements that meet the daily requirements of children.
This according to the governor is a very simple nutritional approach to crippling problems of under-nourishment but consistent with similar programmes in at least 61 countries including Singapore, Indonesia, the United States of America and South Africa. More than 450,000 children in public schools in the state are to benefit from the scheme. Speaking further on the advantages of the liquid feed over other forms of feeding, Adamu said it does not require refrigeration, and as such was suitable for storage administration in the rural areas. According, to him , it is also portable, clean and healthy because it is a full meal with all the known nutrients added to it.
Nutri- Sip is not produced in Nigeria at the moment. It is imported. Newswatch leant that President Obasanjo has exempted it on the list of banned goods and has granted the Nassarawa State import duty waiver on it.
The state government has gone into an agreement with Tetra-Pack, Good Hope International Beverages who are the contract suppliers of the Nutri-Sip. The governor said that so far, the state government has ordered and paid for ten million units of Nutri-Sip. Out of this, it has taken delivery of eight million units. The units are currently in stores in Keffi, Lafia and Akwanga in Nassarawa State. It is from these stores that they will be taken by special delivery trucks for distribution to schools involved in the pilot scheme.
The programme, the governor admitted is a capital intensive project which will certainly face problems if it remains import dependent. To this end, he said the local production of the feed supplement is the only guarantee for survival of the programme.
Speaking at the occasion, Obasanjo said the event marked a very important milestone in the country's effort towards enhancing the nutritional status of the citizenry. This, he said, was necessary in view of the widespread incidences of malnutrition, which is a major factor in developing countries. "We are all aware that malnutrition compromises the physical and mental development of the population, particularly children and put them at major risk as exemplified by recorded morbidity and mortality rates in the country. The social and nutritional indicators in Nigeria are un-acceptably low. Studies have also shown that a substantial number of primary school children in Nigeria do not eat enough to ensure proper school attendance, attention and performance at school while almost half of school children aged between 7-13 are underweight," Obasanjo said.
Based on this reality, the President said the administration considered the situation as unacceptable and has decided to constitute a number of presidential committees on daily development, citrus and cereals production among several others to address the issue of food security. He said the committee on dairy development recommended the introduction of a milk feeding programme for schools which the government approved and directed the governor of Nasarawa State to pilot the implementation. Milk is seen as a very important ingredient in the production of good nutrition worldwide.
The programme is a joint responsibility of states and local governments. In Nasarawa State, the government has already given it legal backing. An enabling law has been passed by the state assembly. The law spells out in clear terms the contribution and the responsibilities of each tier of government to the programme.
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