Forget the negative hype, here’s a success story of which we can all be proud
FOR THE past 15 years, we in South Africa have been blessed to have the National School Nutrition Programme, which aims to provide meals to the neediest pupils in schools.
The programme has managed to produce graduates for the country, but we never praise its success, merely because we dwell too much on failures.
When I say the programme has produced “graduates”, I am referring to all those pupils from Grade 1 to Grade 12 who benefited when their parents could not afford to give them pocket money or make them lunch boxes; in fact I am one of them.
I had no lunch box or pocket money to carry at school, so I relied on the nutrition programme in all my years at high school, and I believe the programme is a milestone on how the Department of Education in South Africa fulfils its mandate of providing a healthy learning environment for all children.
Unlike Somalia, we have not experienced the death of 47 children from hunger-related ailments, which occurred in Banaadir Hospital in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, over the past two months.
To date, 1 200 children have been treated for severe malnutrition at the medical facility in the same period in Somalia.
Also, water sources have dried up due to the prolonged drought in Somalia, forcing thousands to drink contaminated water as living conditions deteriorate.
We complain every day about what’s not going well in our country, but the truth is that through the National School Nutrition Programme, our country has enhanced the learning capacity of pupils over the provision of healthy meals at schools, whereas in other countries like Somalia, children are dying daily due to malnutrition.
As much as half of the public-school students in the country are from low-income families, and cannot afford lunch boxes.
However, through this programme, punctuality, regular school attendance, concentration and the general wellbeing of participating pupils have drastically improved in schools.
There is absolutely nothing that can distract a pupil in a classroom as easily as hunger and starvation.
I don’t care how much you enjoy being inside the school premises; once you are hungry, you are likely to lose concentration and become drowsy, and that’s a barrier between you and the learning process.
This was formerly the story of poverty and hunger in our nation’s schools, as was witnessed every day by teachers, principals and staff, but that’s all history now.
Also, while growing up in the dusty villages of the Eastern Cape I always saw my peers bunking schools, mainly because they had no food to eat before they went to school, but after the nutrition programme provided meals at schools, pupils’ attendance at schools has increased.
The programme intends to provide meals that give pupils energy for mental and physical activities, and help the brain to function and to make pupils alert and receptive during lessons.
This nutrition programme is part of the government’s broader poverty alleviation drive and zooms in on schools in needy communities.
In the programme, while pupils are being provided with nutritious meals, they are also taught to establish and maintain good eating and lifestyle habits for life. Nutrition education also provides teachers with resource materials to support the curriculum and to make every school a healthy school.
Through this programme, the department aimed to achieve three objectives, which are to contribute to enhanced learning capacity through school feeding programmes; to promote and support food production and improve food security in school communities; and to strengthen nutrition education in schools and communities.
I can boldly say that all the objectives were effectively achieved.
The nutrition programme was introduced in 1994 by the government as part of the Reconstruction and Development Programme of the newly founded democratic Republic of South Africa.
Since its inception, the programme has covered only pupils in primary school.
The 2006 survey by the Fiscal and Finance Committee confirmed that there was a need to extend the programme to secondary schools.
In October 2008, the minister of finance announced a budget for the inclusion of secondary schools in the programme.
The programme is funded through a conditional grant that is transferred quarterly to provinces.
Guided by the relevant legislation and policies, national and provincial departments of education are accountable for the management and utilisation of the funds, as well as the monitoring of implementation.
Success stories do exist in South Africa.
Let us stop the culture of seeing the negative in everything, and applaud when tasks are being executed successfully.
Myataza is a political science graduate from the University of the Western Cape, and is currently a content developer at the Media and Writers Firm.