By Kellys Kaunda
HOW SUSTAINABLE IS THE SCHOOL FEEDING PROGRAM?
This is the question posed by Dr. Aaron Chansa, the Executive Director of the National Action for Quality Education in Zambia, NAQEZ.
He raises questions of funding and logistical gaps.
Specifically, Dr. Chansa identified “challenges in meeting meal preparation costs and lack of sufficient cooking resources and some personnel responsible for preparing meals are not adequately supported”.
This is according to a story by Justina Matandiko of Phoenix News.
In the 70s when I started school, we had no school feeding program. Sometimes parents gave you two or five ngwee which you would use to buy something during school break.
Usually, there were people that brought all kinds of foodstuff to sell outside the school perimeter fence.
On independence day, Supaloaf, a State-owned baking company which my father worked for distributed rock buns (I hope this is the correct spelling) to primary and secondary schools in Kitwe.
Coca-Cola brought coke, Fanta and Sprite. The Dairy Produce Board brought milk and milk biscuits.
However, at one point, this activity abruptly stopped. Looking back, it’s obvious it couldn’t be sustained.
In boarding schools, it was only logical that the feeding program continued.
However, the quality of food was always bad. I was a day scholar but I saw what students ate.
Mostly, it was beans and cabbage. You can imagine for almost three months someone feeding on these two food items!
The poor performance of the Zambian economy over the years has adversely affected government’s ability to sustain some social programs – school-feeding program included.
But given it’s importance, raising questions regarding its sustainability is not intended to frustrate government efforts.
Instead, it’s to help sustain it by bringing to the attention of various stakeholders some of the gaps.
Innocently, government may not be aware of the gaps. Those that may want to step in and fill the gaps are not aware of the needs, too.
My repeated call to the media is that the importance of policy is not necessarily at the point of its announcement.
Rather, it’s at the point of the policy’s contact with its intended beneficiary.
In the case of the feeding program, go to the schools and observe how it plays out in real time.
A news item reported thus is more helpful in improving service delivery than media events organized by sources – typical public relations activities.
It is sustainable because it opens up business opportunities for farmers, suppliers, and others
You need to do some background research before coming to social media with wild speculation tainted with your malicious desire to see the UPND government fail.
Dr Musokotwane, our Minister of Finance, and his team publish the monthly activity of that Ministry. On their website. And on social media platforms such as Facebook. Very transparent and professionally led ministry. Unlike in the previous regime where someone’s child was gifted 79 vehicles. 23 properties. And a petrol filling station.
https://www.facebook.com/share/1DzR7MKAjf/
That failing, government has a spokesperson who can recruit the answers to your questions. It is only after putting in some due diligence that professional writers go public. And when they go public, they place reachable or traceable references to back up their views.
Yours is just nkani ya mu kachasu. Please pull up yowa g-strings. You are embarrassing yourself.