“Primary seven pupils in the schools were
provision of meals to pupils was adapted performed better in the 2013 Primary
Leaving Examinations (PLE) than the other pupils in those schools that did not
take the campaign serious. Actually their performance improved from the time
they started getting meals as opposed to the previous years of hunger”,
asserts Mr. Gaster Madaba a Community
Resource Person attached to Buhugu Primary School. One of the key challenges
affecting the UPE program in Sironko district is the issue of lack of meals in
schools. This phenomenon contributes to the increased dropout rates in schools,
as well as defilement of many young girls and boys as they roam around Trading Centers
looking for alternatives to midday meals. In the bid to address the above
challenge, Network for Community Development (NCD) with financial and technical
support from Independent Development Fund (IDF), implemented a two year project
titled “Strengthening the Right to Education in Sironko”.
The project’s overall goal was to
increase the child’s right approach to programming in Universal Primary
Education, with particular focus to the provision of midday meals in schools.
By the end of 2013 the project had
registered a number of successes: all the 10 targeted/pilot schools had by mid
last year started providing lunch to their pupils-out of 6,798 targeted pupils,
836 pupils (29%) were already enjoying mid day meals at their schools. The district
council also took up the issue of mid day meals and discussed it in several of
their sessions and in November 2013, Sironko District Local Government passed a
bylaw promoting compulsory feeding in all UPE Schools in the district.
According to the bylaw feeding fees were to be paid before a child was
registered effective term one of 2014, and this has been effected in many
schools. Lastly parents were made to realise the importance of mid day meals
and henceforth started supporting their children and the schools on this.
In
an effort to sustain this initiative NCD conducted a sensitization meeting for School
Management Committees and head teachers and advised them to create food for all
committees that will be in charge of feeding in their schools. During this
sensitization meeting the District Education Office (DEO) acknowledged NCD’s tremendous contribution in promoting feeding in schools. The
DEO said this had helped to keep children in school and would in the long run
improve their academic performance, “We
are happy to note that through your efforts a by-law was introduced and that the
number of children having mid day meals at school has risen from 836 children
(29%) to 2,827 children (42%) out of 6,731 children” the DEO remarked.
Pupils at Buhugu&Kirali Primary schools at meal time.
This success was attained through a
combination of strategies; empowerment of key stakeholders; children, parents
and community members were provided with information on promoting children
rights to education. Here 24 Community Resource Persons, 178 model parents, and
30 child monitors were trained in child rights. During these trainings, midday
meals were emphasized as a key component if the quality of UPE program was to
improve. In the same vein several advocacy meetings were held to provide a
platform for sensitizing parents on the importance of providing meals to their
children.
Creation of self help groups; these
operate like savings and loans groups. Parents save and borrow money from it to
pay for the meals and scholastic materials of their children. This has proven
to be a good strategy because many parents even the previously handicapped ones
have come up to support their children with ease.
Provision of several alternatives; for
example parents with children in Buhugu primary school were advised to pay an
agreed sum for feeding at school or to bring maize and beans or even buy daily meals
(posho and beans) at school. With more alternatives availed, parents were and
are now in a better position to feed their children. In addition to the above were radio
talk shows and jingles about the same, community sensitization meetings, and routine
interaction with parents by the community resource persons and child monitors.
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| Model parents in a Child's right to Education training |
These strategies helped create
avenues/platforms for information sharing on the importance, relevance and
relationship between school meals and academic excellence and consequently ushered
in positive change; reduction in pupil absenteeism and escaping in search for
meals, increased concentration and improved academic performance, increased
understanding on stakeholder roles and responsibilities to child education by
parents and leaders and strengthened district support for education programs in
the district especially school meals.
