FCT to feed 120,300 pupils

FCT Minister of State, Dr. Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, has said 120,300 pupils across the six area councils in the territory will be fed under the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme.

The minister who stated this during the official flag-off of the programme in Karu Model School, Abuja, said the programme will cover 626 public primary schools in the six area councils of the territory.

Aliyu observed that the programme was designed to improve the health and educational outcomes of public primary school pupils, stressing that the programme links local farmers to the education sector by facilitating their access to the school feeding market.

She assured that all stakeholders- parents, teachers, traditional and community leaders who are the gatekeepers, and the vendors who will prepare the meals will be carried along in the full implementation of the programme.

Aliyu added that to ensure efficient service delivery, a feedback mechanism involving the head teachers, health teachers and the class teachers of each school has been put in place, as well as the process of training the head teachers, health teachers and class teachers in each school.

“The programme is targeting about 120,300 pupils that will be drawn from 626 public primary schools across the six area councils of the FCT. Henceforth, pupils will be fed once daily with meals containing the six required nutrients from primary one to three.

“I want to assure you that all stakeholders parents, teachers, traditional and community leaders who are the gatekeepers, and the vendors who will prepare the meals will be carried along in the full implementation of this programme,” Aliyu stressed.

Earlier in her remarks, the minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Hajia Sadiya Umar Farouk, noted that the Social Investment programmes of the Federal Government was designed to achieve the national objectives of reducing poverty and taking 100 million Nigerians out of poverty by creating opportunity, increasing resilience, promoting equity and stimulating growth in the country.