By Juliana Katung,
Kaduna (Nigeria)– It has been revealed that out of 4,286 primary one to three pupils in Kaduna State, northwest of the country, only 300 are currently benefiting from the federal Government Schools feeding programme.
The Director, Higher Education, John Bala disclosed this when some members of the Bauchi State House of Assembly as well as officials of the Ministry of Education visited the Kaduna State House of Assembly to understudy from the state, the on going schools feeding programme.
He said under the State, over 11,000 cooks and vendors are currently involved in the on going programme, while others are yet to be cleared
He explained that under the federal government feeding programme each cook, cooks for 150 pupils daily at the rate of N70 per pupil.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Adamu Mansur said that the Federal Government had refund N3.4 billion out of the N6.8 billion expecting from it, being the expenses incurred by Kaduna state in 2016.
He noted that within the 26 weeks of its schools feeding programme in 2016, the state spent N9.5 billion in which N6.8 billion was expected to be refunded by the Federal Government as part of its component of feeding primary one to three.
According to him, the kaduna state version of the school feeding programmed for year 2017 is yet to commence because they are still expecting the remaining N3.4 from the federal government.
“The school feeding Programme kicked off January 2016 and run till July, and was suspended as result of the federal Government inability to refund the whole total sum spent for feeding the primary 1 to 3 during the Kaduna state school feeding programme” he stated.
The permanent Secretary who said that feeding was done at the rate of N55 per pupil, noted that in piloting the programme, the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) was deeply involved in sourcing for the cooks, identification of the schools and numbers of pupils among others.
Responding, the Bauchi state Deputy Majority leader who is also the chairman Home Growth school feeding programme, Alhaji Abdullahi Sa’ad said the objective of the visit was to find out how Kaduna state which has been into the programme was operating.
This, he said, was for them to learn and in turn use the knowledge to strengthening their own federal government feeding programme which kicked off recently in Bauchi state .
“We are fresh in the programme, as we started with the federal government feeding programme, there is the need for us to Learn from Kaduna state that has been running theirs at the state level before the federal Governmet own” he noted
The lawmaker, while appreciating the Kaduna Assembly for the warmly welcome through it’s Committee on Education, observed that their Host has demonstrated brotherhood toward making the Bauchi Assembly enact good laws for the betterment of the people.
Also, the Chairman House Committee on Education, Mallam Dahiru Liman said that the school feeding Programme was part of the All Progressives Congress (APC) manifesto and hoped that with the little done through the school feeding programme, the electorate will appreciate APC government.
