FCT to feed120,300 pupils
FCT Minister of State, Dr. Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, has said 120,300 pupils across the six area councils in the territory will be fed under the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme.
The minister who stated this during the official flag-off of the programme in Karu Model School, Abuja, last Friday, said the programme will cover 626 public primary schools in the six area councils of the territory.
A statement by the minister’s media aide, Mr. Austine Elemue, quoted Aliyu as saying the programme was designed to improve the health and educational outcomes of public primary school pupils, stressing that the programme links local farmers to the education sector by facilitating their access to the school feeding market.
She assured that all stakeholders, parents, teachers, traditional and community leaders who are the gatekeepers, and the vendors who will prepare the meals will be carried along in the full implementation of the programme.
Aliyu added that to ensure efficient service delivery, a feedback mechanism involving the head teachers, health teachers and the class teachers of each school has been put in place, as well as the process of training the head teachers, health teachers and class teachers in each school.
Earlier in her remarks, the minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development,
Hajia Sadiya Umar Farouk, noted that the Social Investment programmes of the Federal Government were designed to achieve the national objectives of reducing poverty and taking 100 million Nigerians out of poverty by creating opportunity, increasing resilience, promoting equity and stimulating growth in the country.
“The programme is designed to increase enrolment rates by mopping up the huge numbers of out-of-school children in Nigeria while tackling school age malnutrition. As part of the value chain, the programme also empowers the cooks and provides a sustainable income for small holder farmers, thereby stimulating growth and productivity around the communities in the states,” she said.