School Feeding Programme To Reduce Dropouts
DAPP Malawi School Feeding Programme To Reduce Dropouts At Mzumazi Primary School
Malawi, a country where shortage of food and hunger is a perennial problem, school meals would make a big difference both on reducing malnutrition, promoting development and make children stay in school.
As about 6.5 million Malawians are estimated to face hunger in 2016/2017 season problems of food shortage will continue to haunt Malawi again this year. The food crisis has a direct effect to education of children and young girls from poor.
It is apparent, therefore that the situation is likely going to increase school dropouts as children will focus on their stomach rather than studies and even the poor families will find little importance to send their children to school.
However, there is a ray of hope among teachers at Mzumazi Primary School in Lilongwe rural that the effects of hunger will pass over the school following DAPP Malawi project of Let Children Stay in School supported by the Roger Federer Foundation which encouraged the school to cultivate soya for school feeding programme targeting pupils in junior classes.
“We were given 20 kgs of soya beans seeds and we have harvested 3 bags of soya beans each weighing 75 kgs.” said Felix Phiri one of the teachers at Mzumazi Primary School
“We are expecting that once learners start eating food here at school they will enjoy learning and at the same time this will assist us in reducing absenteeism of learners and they will have improved learning because once one has taken food it is easy to learn.”
This daily meal provision at the school will provide a strong incentive to parents to send their children to school and keep them there. This will help pupils to focus on studies at the same time this will help us to increase school enrolment and attendance thereby decreasing dropout rates among children especially girls.
In this year of hunger, this school meal programme is going to be a regular and nutritious meal that children from Mzumazi school are going to receive and they will be attracted to be in the classroom.
