The Uganda Education Act of 2008 assigns the responsibility of feeding children at school to parents and guardians. The Parent/Guardian Led School Feeding Program encourages parents to voluntarily send food with their children to school.
Education stakeholders say that much as there has been this guideline there is still need for an actual policy as 60% of students study on empty stomachs in schools something leading to poor performance and school dropouts in schools but continues to be ignored.
Education stakeholders and nutritionists in western Uganda challenge the government to prioritise proper feeding of learners in both government and private schools. These say that learners are developing ulcers from schools and it’s the escalating health condition we see today among adults calling for a functional school feeding policy.
According to the World Food Program the policy should aim to advocate for the cultivation of school gardens and empower parents to undergo socioeconomic transformation enabling them to provide nourishment for their children while they are at school to minimize school dropouts and poor performance among learners like Charles Asiimwe, a consultant nutritionist explains.
“Four out of ten children get a meal at school meaning the six do not so about 60% do not access food and that has an impact on the enrolment, class attendance concentration in class and drop out at the end of before the cycle” Asiimwe said.
Angella Abiika a nutritionist also notes that “when we talk about quality feeding in schools we are looking at the volume, frequency, adequacy and nutritious values and safety of the food, for instance we have learners that pack food and by the time they eat at lunch, it’s cold and unsafe”
According to Dr. Gilbert Ahumuza the acting district health officer Rukiga district, they have recorded cases of students visiting health facilities with ulcers from schools.
“When you look at the number of children visiting the facilities, the condition they have after assessment is that they have ulcers, the clinics in schools are registering ulcers cases and when you ask the child is that they don’t eat anything until they return home in the evening” Dr. Ahumuza said.
According to the program officer School feeding at the world Food Program, Edgar Twinomujuni, “government needs to prioritise the school feeding in the NDP IV at both national and local government levels depending on a region and its challenges”
Twinomujuni emphasises the necessity of reactivating and allocating a specific budget for school garden programs to assist schools, regardless of the availability of sufficient land for this purpose.
“It is very difficult for a learner to concentrate when they are hungry and this easily leads to absenteeism and dropouts, so the government needs to be intentional on the school feeding policy and possibly facilitate the schools with budgets” Twinomujuni said.
“So school feeding is one of the initiative that will help us in driving the economic agenda in the NDP IV and so we need to implement the school feeding policy at both national and local government level, we also need to revive the school garden modal so that schools grow their own food to supplement the nutrition of learners and for diversity” He added.
In the national school feeding policy being advocated for if approved by government, it will stipulate clear roles of government, parents, learners and religious leaders among other stakeholders in ensuring proper feeding of students while at school.
