The government will provide food to 3 million learners in 34 counties under the School Meals Programme, the Principal Secretary (PS) for the State Department of Basic Education, Dr. Belio Kipsang has said.
Dr. Kipsang said that the government has adopted two models—in kind which provides food to schools and covers learners in 11 arid counties.
Secondly, in the homegrown model, budgets will be provided to schools to acquire food from local suppliers.
This model, the PS noted, will boost small-scale farmers and local economies while covering learners in 23 counties.
The PS made the remarks when he received the Chief Executive Officer, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), Ms. Kate Hampton who had paid a courtesy call on him in his office at Jogoo House yesterday.
Dr. Kipsang said that the provision of food in Arid and Semiarid regions aimed at improving children’s access to education, noting that harsh environments created barriers to education in the regions.
Ms, Hampton said that CIFF wished to discuss priority areas for partnership and collaboration with the Ministry of Education.
She disclosed that CIFF has partnered with the county government of Nairobi to provide hot meals for children in public primary schools in the area.
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The Officer added that the goal of education funding is to ensure that every child is prepared mentally, emotionally and physically for primary school and later life.
The School Meals Programme in Kenya was started in 1980 after the country was hit with a severe drought. The programme was started by the Ministry of Education with the support of the World Food Programme to encourage enrolment and retention of children in school. It started with 240,000 learners.
Since 2018, the Programme has been handed over fully to the Government.
The programme is run by the Ministry of Education through the National Council for Nomadic Education in Kenya, (NACONEK).
By Our Reporter
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