Secondary school heads want the government to extend the school feeding programme to cover day secondary schools even as the programme fights for its survival in primary school.
A budget policy document by the Treasury ministry reveals the programme suffered a slash of Sh500 million with the government allocating Sh1.6 billion from Sh2.1 billion allocated in this financial year.
With exit of donor support from the World Food Programme mid last year and a reduced budget, the Education ministry has warned that the programme could collapse.
Head teachers and principals fear plans to lower money allocated to free primary education will largely affect teaching, learning and retaining and transition in schools.
Kenya Primary School Heads Association secretary David Mavuta yesterday said the meal has helped to increase and retain children from arid and semi arid regions in school.
“It seems like a small issue but in cases where children don’t get food in school, they fail to go back to school after lunch break, walk kilometres to have lunch and even those that come back to school delay the afternoon timetable,” Mavuta told the Star yesterday.
Association chair Indimuli Kahi yesterday said schools that are not in the programme are suffering a setback in ensuring students go back to class after lunch break.
“In some instances these children go home and they are the ones to look for food, cook before going back to class, by the time the kid is done with all this it’s past time to go back to school,” Kahi said.
Education PS Belio Kipsang said the cuts threaten to hit hard on efforts to retain children in school in the arid and semi arid areas. He said the direct impact of this will see a reduction in number of pupils receiving food in target areas.
“The school feeding program is so critical. Those of us who come from a place where there is no challenge and getting three meals is not a problem may not appreciate what happens to our children who are in ASAL areas that this one meal a day is what keeps them in school,” Kipsang said.
The school meal program targets 1.5 million school children each day with the government setting aside Sh11 per child every day.
With exit of WFP in June last year the government reaffirmed capability to sustain the programme.
The program was initiated in the 1980s with the then government instituting a federally funded school meals program through a short lived school milk program through the National Food School Feeding council of Kenya.
The milk program was aimed at increasing primary school enrollment as well as ensuring a stable market for Kenyan dairy producers.
The initiative that provided free milk to 4.3 million primary students failed shortly after its launch due to poor infrastructure, lack of firewood, water and cash for cooks’ salaries.