The Bondo National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF) lunch support programme for secondary day school students will be pegged on their individual performance from next year.
This was revealed by Bondo MP Dr. Gideon Ochanda who stated that the NG-CDF committee has restructured the programme to improve academic performance of students from the region.
The NG-CDF previously paid Ksh6000 annually for all students in secondary day schools with parents paying the remaining Ksh6000 to cater for lunch.
This year however, the kitty paid Ksh50 million for the programme benefitting 5,000 Form 4 students with each receiving Ksh10,000.
Addressing the press at Got Abiero secondary school, Ochanda who is also the constituency NG-CDF patron, disclosed that the current universal support for the programme is not yielding improvement in exam performance as expected hence forcing them to revise the programme’s structure.
“From next year, only students posting grade C and above in end term tests will be supported by the CDF lunch programme, I am always tasked to explain to the NG-CDF board what difference the programme makes in terms of performance but I find it difficult to answer, Instead of registering improved performances, students in secondary day schools have dropped performance,” he regretted.
The legislator observed that students in secondary day schools lose four hours a day going home for lunch compared to their boarding counterparts translating to almost a whole term in a calendar year thus having a lunch programme in schools helps reduce the amount of time lost daily.
“Day secondary school students have to work twice as hard compared to their boarding counterparts because they lose so many hours. Actually, they waste hours equivalent to a whole term and that is why we began this programme because most parents could not afford the Ksh12,000 annually.” He remarked.
By Erick Nyayiera
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