Tesfa Hunde, 10, is fourth-grader in one of Addis Ababa elementary schools. As he came from a poor family background, getting day to day meal was not an easy thing for him.
As a result, besides failing to actively attend classes, he once fainted in school due to a lack of food. Understanding the situation, teachers contributed some money, bought food for him and helped him to revive. “Since the death of his father, his family has struggled to get their daily bread.”
Not far from this incident, the Yenat Weg Charitable Organization Association and Addis Ababa City Administration had signed a memorandum of understanding and provided a meal to students in some selected primary schools since 2015. As some witnessed, the initiative has brought a significant impact on the school performance of the children.
Since the launching of the School Feeding Program in 2015, it made possible to downsize the number of school dropouts. According to the study conducted by Eth. Alem PLC consulting firm, enrollment increased by 9 percent while the number of absent students declined by 59 percent and dropouts by 64 percent annually in 43 schools in Addis Ababa.
Physical development has also shown growth to 21.8 percent gain in body weight improvement and 3.7 percent height increment since the intervention four years ago. Besides, the program has improved academic performances of beneficiary students, measuring 11 percent improvement in annual academic scores, the survey indicated.
In Addis Ababa, children especially those who come from poor family have been facing to actively attend school due to lack of nutrient foods. Besides the poor academic performance, the children have also been vulnerable to stunting. Considering malnutrition is a serious problem to the well being of children and their educational progress, the Addis Ababa City Administration has recently launched a school feeding program for needy students in the capital.
The city administration plans to be proactive in regulating and implementing such programs by sharing the experiences of other countries to further increase the school enrollment of needy children. Previously, the school meal was provided for children who came from a pro-poor family background only. Since 2019, all public school students benefit from the program.
No single mechanism brings the quality of education; the school feeding program may take as one factor that makes students effective and initiate them to score better results. All in all, the program will enable private and government school students to compete equally, City Administration Education Bureau Public Relations Head Abebe Cherinet said adding that uniform and other teaching aids distributed to students before the teaching-learning process of 2019/20 is kicked off. The city administration starts providing a meal for over 300 thousand students as of last Monday.
Accordingly, the program is benefiting primary school students (from grade 1 to 8). For this, the Mayor’s Office covers the total cost of the program. “Here, I want to acknowledge the effort made by First Lady Zinash Tayachew who played an important role in the realization of the program,” Abebe said.
Taking the initiative as a model, the city administration has begun to provide meal adding additional services to Addis Ababa students. As it was implemented, meal provision has its own system. The process of feeding is undertaking as per the designed system.
Besides ensuring the quality of education by decreasing the number of school dropouts, the program has also several other benefits. It has also created job opportunities for unemployed youths in the city. They are now getting benefits by supply inputs and food materials to prepare school meals.
For the continuation of the program, donors, private companies and the general public should contribute their share.
The Ethiopian Herald October 17, 2019
BY GIRMACHEW GASHAW
