Day school heads welcome the reinstatement of government’s school feeding program » Capital News

MURANG’A, Kenya, June 3 – Day secondary school heads have welcomed a move by MPs to reinstate the school feeding programme which had been scrapped by Treasury in the proposed budget estimates for the financial year 2024/25 sparking uproar among stakeholders.

They warned that removal of the programme would have led to an increase in school dropout cases particularly in ASAL areas where a majority of the needy parents can barely provide basic meals to their children.

One of the stated challenges that the schools were facing is lack of school fees amongst the learners since most of them are under the care of their grandparents who are unable to pay the fees.

Euralia Njimu,the Principal at St Thomas Gatura secondary school stated that the organisation’s intervention has helped in retaining learners at school, as parents don’t have to feed children at home as they are fed at school.

The child welfare Society of Kenya has embarked on its second phase of its school feeding programme as they pilot the programme for the first time in Mukurwe-ini.

In a three-day distribution exercise, the society distributed food to over 4,000 students in 22 day schools.

The Organisation stated that they will expand their initiative into more counties in order to help more learners stay in school.

The organization also added that among the schools that benefited from the programme were affected by the heavy rains where some of the school structures were vandalised.

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