‘School feeding increases enrollment by 35 percent in Niger’

The Niger State Focal Person of the Home Grown School Feeding programme, Barrister Amina Musa Gwa, has said that the introduction of the School Feeding Programme by the Federal Government had increased the enrollment of pupils by 35 per cent across the 2, 636 public primary schools in the state.

She stated this during the official distribution of feeding plates to schools as part of measures to check the hygienic condition of the feeding programme.

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“Children bring unhygienic plates to school to be served with. So, we are handing over these plates to the cooks who will take charge of washing them after serving the pupils.

“With this, the hygiene would be maintained. The cooks will henceforth be responsible for the safekeeping of the plates. When the pupils are fed, the cooks collect back the plates, take them home and wash them.

“We have also give coolers to over 5, 000 cooks so that they don’t bring food in rubber buckets,” she said.

Barrister Gwa explained that the enrollment figure had moved from 600, 000 to 800, 000 since the inception of the programme.

She said 559, 903 pupils from 2, 636 public primary schools were benefitting from the programme in the state.