On the issue of feeding pupils

BY ERINYANA JEREMIAH

Before the present federal administration was officially accepted by the federation, there was this news going viral that the Buhari/Osinbajo-led administration would be feeding primary school pupils across the country daily. Although this sounded like a farce but it soon became a poem on the concerned persons lips wherever they went campaigning before the elections. While this may not be a bad idea altogether, the possibility of achieving such a high-priced venture is sceptical. But without doubting the leaders’ ability, one can say that it is a big step in correcting the rot in Nigeria’s education system from the root.

The idea should be lauded and supported by everyone who long for a better future for the country. The abject poverty causing havoc in most families is no longer in doubt and families in this predicament who can hardly afford one meal a day find it extremely difficult to send their children to school. This has for a long time been a recurring decimal resulting in the rise of school drop-outs.

It is hoped that the government will move from sentiments to reality on this promising initiative to save Nigeria’s future.

Vice President Yemi Osinbanjo, at the 45th Accountants Conference in Abuja had disclosed that the Mahammadu Buhari administration would soon commence the programme of giving Primary School children free meals. The free feeding scheme which according to him is the core project of the federal government would in turn yield more jobs and increase food production. He said this while speaking on “Repositioning Nigeria for sustainable Development: from Rhetoric to performance” and stressed that the multiplier effect of the introduction of the school feeding scheme would help increase food production by 530,000 metric tonnes per annum and attract fresh investments of up to N980 billion.     

Osinbanjo further said that building the capacity of teachers is one important    

intervention needed in the education sector. As a result, the feeding programme is intended to drive teachers’ capacity development, boost basic education and attract talents to the teaching profession. He recalled that his political party, the All Progressive Congress (APC) had made a commitment to providing one-meal-a-day for primary school pupil; a development that would create job in agriculture, including poultry, catering and delivery services.

There is no doubt that a well articulated and coordinated school feeding programme that guarantees one good meal a day for pupils would certainly attract large number of pupils to school. The Buhari administration by doing this would have provided a way out of low school enrolment, especially in the northern parts of the country and charted a path to Nigeria’s educational system’s renaissance. 

However, education is one thing and its quality is another. The difference between the two is clearly captured in UNESCO’s Education for All’s (EFA) six goals. Goal (2) focuses on providing free and compulsory education for all, while goal (4) focuses on providing quality education. 

Also, UN’s Global Education First Initiative (GEFI), focuses on three key areas with the first two being to “put every child in school” and to “improve the quality of learning”.

It is therefore expected that with Nigeria’s huge earnings from oil, the country should not only invest on better funded school feeding programme which will encourage high enrolment of pupils but should as well provide them with quality education that will serve as a foundation for their better tomorrow.