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NEWS FEATURE
Pupils of Otatai Primary School having lunch of mashed potatoes, locally known as amukeke. The potato chips are provided by parents
abilities, absenteeism, bad behaviour, poor
health and often drop out of school.
The Education Act allows schools to charge
parents a limited amount of money for feeding
children, provided it is agreed upon by the
school management committee in consultation
with the district council. It, however, maintains
that such payments must be voluntary.
The law also states that pupils must not be
dismissed from school, if their parents do not
pay lunch fees.
In a 2010 report
to Cabinet, the
education ministry
cited hunger
among the reasons
why UPE schools
performed poorly
Other options proposed by the ministry
for feeding school children include children
returning home for lunch, carrying packed
food, contributing food rations to the school
and setting up school gardens where the
children or their parents provide labour.
To facilitate the school garden option, the
ministry is partnering with the World Food
Programme to provide seeds for planting. In
Karamoja, schools will also get hoes.
The idea that there is no food in rural areas
should not arise anymore. People should find
a way of getting food to schools, Alupo says.
Whereas some headteachers are relieved
that they can now officially do what they have
been doing sneakily, others fear that they are
being made to climb a mountain.
More than half of the schools interviewed
by Sunday Vision backed the ministers idea,
saying it will greatly improve performance. In
fact, many UPE headteachers said by the time
Alupo made the pronouncement, they were
Akongo and Atim during the interview at Otatai Primary School in Soroti district
already feeding their children using funds
contributed by parents.
NEWS FEATURE
The Uganda
Teachers
Union wants
the Government
to formulate
guidelines on
school feeding
Primary School in Gulu.
At Patira Primary School, the over 700
pupils often queue to buy pancakes or boiled
maize at lunchtime. Those who do not have
money for snacks go hungry.
Similar challenges are being faced in
the eastern region. Two years ago, the
management of Otatai Primary School in
Soroti district asked every parent to provide
one basin of dried sweet potato chips
(amukeke) per child per term, but out of the
200 parents, only 40 complied.
The headteacher, Jane Akongo, says most
parents believe it is the Governments
responsibility to provide food and meet all
other educational needs of their children.
At one time, a parents teachers association
meeting resolved that each parent pays
sh6,000 a year, but only half paid, says
Catherine Atim, the deputy headteacher at
the school.
The school withheld report cards of
children who had defaulted, but this did not
help as some parents simply transferred their
children to other schools.
At Pamba Primary School in Soroti
municipality, the deputy headteacher, Anna
Ariyo, says they have started a feeding
UNATU EXPLAINS
Hunger leading
to high dropout
rates experts
The senior programme ofcer of
Hunger Free World, a non-government
organisation, Gonzaga Kiddu, says hungry
children become angry with the school
as well as their parents, which leads to
rebellious behaviour and school dropout.
Hungry people are angry, he says.
The executive director of Public Affairs
Centre Soroti branch, Benson Ekwee,
welcomes Alupos directive, but is worried
that politicians might fail feeding schemes
by making populist decisions.
The very politicians issuing such requests
shall be the ones threatening headteachers,
who send away children who have not paid
money for feeding, he notes.
Ekwee emphasises the need to change
parents mindsets about the belief that the
Government should do everything for them.
Associate Prof. Freddie Ssengooba, a
lecturer at the Makerere University School
of Public Health, says an inclusive feeding
programme in schools would be the gamechanger in primary education.
You cant expect children to perform well
on empty stomachs. After several hours
of studying, trekking long distances and
playing, children exhaust the sugar in their
bodies, he says.
Apart from the academics, physical and
health benets, Ssengooba says school
feeding programmes would promote
agriculture by providing a robust market
for food items. He criticises the ministry
for maintaining that no parent should be
compelled to pay for meals at school.
He argues that either parents pay or the
Government provides food.
To say anyone shouldnt pay is like
burying our heads in the sand. These
government ofcials send their children to
top schools and are paying for meals. Why
do they want children of the poor to wallow
in hunger? asks Ssengooba.
A community psychologist in Lira,
Emmanuel Okodi, advises that the best way
to run a successful feeding programme in
northern Uganda is to set up by-laws that
will compel stubborn parents to contribute
towards such schemes.
Florence Tushemereirwe, a nutritionist
at Mulago National Hospital, says feeding
pupils helps them concentrate in class,
improve performance and their mental
health.
A hungry child has a less productive and
dull brain. Everyones brain requires good
nutrition to work at its best and energy is
key. We get energy from the food we eat,
says Tushemerirwe.