120, 300 pupils to benefit from school feeding scheme in FCT— Minister
The Federal Capital Territory Minister of State, Dr. Ramatu Aliyu on Friday disclosed that 120, 300 pupils across the six area councils would benefit from the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme in the FCT.
Aliyu, who made this known while inaugurating the programme at the Karu Model School in Abuja, revealed that the pupils are drawn from the 626 public primary schools within the six area councils of the territory.
She said that the programme is designed to improve the health and educational outcomes of public primary school pupils.
According to her, the programme will link local farmers to the education sector by facilitating their access to the school feeding market.
The minister assured that parents, teachers, traditional and community leaders who are the gatekeepers and the vendors who would prepare the meals would be carried along in the full implementation of the programme.
Aliyu said to ensure efficient service delivery, a feedback mechanism involving the head teachers, health teachers and the class teachers of each school had been put in place, as well as the process of training the head teachers, health teachers and class teachers in each school.
“The programme is targeting about 120,300 pupils that will be drawn from 626 public primary schools across the six area councils of the FCT. Henceforth, pupils will be fed once daily with meals containing the six required nutrients from primary one to three.
“I want to assure you that all stakeholders, parents, teachers, traditional and community leaders who are the gatekeepers, and the vendors who will prepare the meals will be carried along in the full implementation of this programme,” Aliyu stressed.
She stated that the programme in the FCT is for pupils in public primary schools, but however, called on community leaders and all stakeholders in the FCT to assist the federal government in lifting the burden off indigent parents who cannot afford balanced diets for their wards.
Earlier, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouk, said the programmes is designed to achieve the national objectives of reducing poverty and taking a 100 million Nigerians out of poverty by creating opportunity, increasing resilience, promoting equity and stimulating growth in the country.
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Farouk also stated that the National Home Grown School Feeding programme is one of the four cardinal programmes of National Social Investment Programme.
She added that the main objective of the programme was to provide one nutritious, balanced meal, each school day to pupils in class one to three in public primary schools across the country.
