Treasury cuts school feeding programme funds
Treasury cuts school feeding programme funds
Millions of children who depend on school nutrition programs now face uncertain futures.
This comes after the Sh4.9 billion allotted for the initiative was removed by the National Treasury. The planned budget estimates for the 2024–2025 fiscal year show this.
In order to alleviate food insecurity among schoolchildren, the school feeding program is essential, and in the current fiscal year, it was allocated Sh4.9 billion.
To support the project, the Ministry of Education requested an additional Sh1 billion in the supplemental budget.
When Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang testified before the National Assembly Education Committee on Tuesday, the details became public. Lawmakers are concerned about the program’s potential negative consequences on millions of students nationwide, which has caused a stir since it was decided to discontinue it.
Chairman of the National Assembly Education Committee Julius Melly stated that the Education Ministry is surprised by the government’s decision to stop the project, particularly in light of the Kenya Kwanza administration’s prior promise to extend the program in order to increase school attendance.
The Kenya Kwanza government moved ahead and assured Kenyans that the benefits will extend beyond Asal counties to all of Kenya.
Therefore, we must understand what caused the termination and why. Melly stated, “I would like to know the reasoning behind the proposal to discontinue this program.
Eighty percent of Kenyans were afflicted by a severe drought in 1980, which prompted the program’s inception.
Through a partnership between the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Government of Kenya, it began by serving 240,000 students, but today it covers at least 2.6 million students in 8,185 schools across the country. The goal of the initiative was to reach four million students at the very least.
The 2019 Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) Census estimates that 2.5 million children in Kenya are not attending school. Eight Asal counties—Mandera, Garissa, Turkana, Marsabit, Narok, West Pokot, Samburu, and Baringo—are home to over 60% of these kids.
High rates of poverty, low literacy, low net enrollment rates, high teacher-student ratios, inadequate school infrastructure, high dropout rates, chronic absenteeism, and a high proportion of older students and out-of-school youth are some of the characteristics that define these locations.
Dr. Kipsang expressed dismay at the decision and emphasized the gap that exists between the realities that underprivileged people confront and the policies that are made.
“The largest obstacle we are dealing with is the elimination of the entire budget. Even those of us who eat three meals a day may not understand the suffering that certain regions of this nation experience when a youngster goes without food.
For this reason, I wanted my Treasury colleagues who don’t think this initiative is vital to be here,” the PS stated.
He voiced his concerns on the substantial cuts of Sh7 billion in the recurrent budget for the next year.
