The School Feeding program is set to finally resume in June, and the resumption cannot come soon enough for many students in the char and hill areas of Bangladesh.
Teachers and parents of children in Dharmapasha and Tahirpur areas of Sunamganj district, said the program became irregular during the prolonged closure of educational institutions due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The program was suspended altogether in June last year.
State Minister for Primary and Mass Education Md Zakir Hossen yesterday said the school-feeding program would be relaunched at all government primary schools in June.
"The project will play an effective role in addressing nutritional deficiencies of primary-school children, and ensure 100% enrolment in schools, regular school attendance, prevention of dropouts and timely completion of education cycle," he said while addressing a press briefing in the meeting room of the ministry at the Secretariat, said a press release.
The project, titled School Feeding in Poverty-stricken Areas, was launched in 104 upazilas of the country in 2010.
Academic experts urged for the program to be resumed as soon as possible, as many students had been relying on it to meet their nutritional needs. They feared dropout rates would increase if the program was suspended for long periods.
Rasheda K Chowdhury, executive director of Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE), said research has shown that school feeding programs in primary schools contribute to addressing malnutrition, reduced dropout rates, and improved student learning.
She said she was disappointed that the government was waiting until June to resume the program.
“If it resumes from June, then it will have been suspended for a full year. If this successful program is stopped for a year, children will lose interest in education,” the CAMPE executive director added, urging to ensure that the program is considered high priority and never interrupted.
In mid-October last year, the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education issued a letter to the Director General of the Department of Primary Education (DPE) to extend the project.
Later, the DPE sent a letter to the Planning Ministry to finalize the allocations for the extension project.
