Four Million Learners to Benefit From School Feeding Programme
The school food program is expected to assist at least four million students across the country. According to Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang, the program targets four million students and will require an additional Sh7.7 billion in financing to be implemented properly.
Harun Yussuf, Chief Executive of the National Council for Nomadic Education in Kenya (Naconek), who is administering the initiative, stated that the body will fundraise to assist poor students.
“We shall need to raise the money so that the children can benefit from this programme in a wider and scaled-up plan this year,” Yussuf went on to say.
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Dr. Kipsang stated that the Ministry of Education intends to enroll additional students in the program around the country. Currently, the food program serves 2.6 million children in public primary schools, special needs facilities, and select Junior Secondary Schools.
It was also revealed that the Jubilee government’s program barely benefited 1.6 million children for Sh1.96 billion. The Kenya Kwanza administration of President William Ruto expanded the initiative to assist 2.5 million students for Sh6 billion.
At the end of last year, almost 2.5 million people had access to food in schools, primarily in arid and semi-arid countries. Overall, the ministry hopes to enroll 10 million students in the program by the end of President Ruto’s tenure in 2027.
Currently, learners at all public primary schools in arid counties, selected schools in semi-arid areas, special needs schools, informal urban settlements, and refugee camp-based schools benefit from the program.
According to the Naconek status report, 11 of the counties included in the program are in the cash transfer distribution category. Kitui county leads with 413 schools, while 15 counties receive food in-kind, led by Baringo and Turkana counties with 487 and 424 schools, respectively.
According to the survey, Kakamega County has the highest number of special needs children, with 2,915 kids from 24 schools. “The objective is to reduce hunger, boost attendance and retention of students in schools and enhance Primary School completion rates,” according to the report.
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The in-kind distribution strategy has been assigned to 3,103 schools in dry locations, with 997,101 students receiving food at school. There are also 2,051 schools in semi-arid areas with 666,567 students and 34,152 students in 293 special needs schools in 47 counties.
Baringo, Elgeyo Marakwet, Embu, Kajiado, Kilifi, Kitui, Kwale, Laikipia, Machakos, Makueni, Nairobi, Narok, Nyeri, and Taita Taveta are among the counties chosen. There are 1,487 schools with 550,316 students in urban informal communities.
Food is acquired centrally and transferred to sub-county warehouses for secondary distribution to schools in the 11 arid counties and special needs schools. The arrangement for selected schools in semi-arid areas would be based on monetary transfers.
Furthermore, the PS stated that the school lunch program, which is due to begin in January, will focus on boosting fundamental education. It also aims to promote agriculture and improve the general health and nutrition of children from food-insecure homes.
Dr. Kipsang reported that the implementation of the program is also aimed at promoting local agricultural production. This involves enhancing smallholder farmers’ access to schools as markets and creating employment opportunities for young people.
In the future, the Ministry of Education plans to collaborate with both major and small-scale farmers to provide food for the school feeding market. This is meant to encourage nearby communities to grow food and sell it to the school.
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Furthermore, the ministry intends to build farmer schools in order to facilitate food production in schools for students as a means of establishing homegrown food solutions.
Some of the projects planned to increase food production in schools include the installation of rainwater collection systems, the construction of solarized boreholes, and the construction of truncated ponds for appropriate water supply.
Four Million Learners to Benefit From School Feeding Programme