Mufumbwe to benefit from school meals scheme

By JACKSON MAPAPAYI MUFUMBWE is among five districts in North Western Province to benefit from home grown school meals program in a bid to curb low class attendance.

Mufumbwe District Education Board Secretary Evans Kamwana announced during a home grown school meals stakeholders meeting that the district, like four other districts in the province, had been chosen to benefit from the program on the basis of an increase in pupils drop outs, low attendance, low enrolment and extreme poverty among guardians.

Mr Kamwana said the idea of the home grown school meals program has produced a lot of positive results in Eastern and Western provinces where it was first launched in 2001.

He explained that in the two provinces, drop out levels in schools had reduced from 8 percent to 3.5 percent and that attendance rate has increased from 65 percent to 85 percent.

Meanwhile District Commissioner (DC) Masela Sekeseke has encouraged local farmers to grow various kinds of food crops as government has created market for them through the program.

Other districts chosen from the province are Mwinilunga, Kasempa, Ikelenge and Zambezi respectively.

The program is meant to benefit pupils ranging from early education to junior secondary grades.

The World Food Program, Ministry of General Education, Health and Community Development and Social Welfare as a well as the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) and Parents Teachers Association (PTA) are some of the key partners engaged in the implementation of the program.