By Nneka Nwogwugwu
The Government of Rwanda has allocated over Rwf27 billion to support the expansion of the school feeding programme to all students in pre-primary, primary and secondary schools in the current fiscal year.
While presenting the Government of Rwanda’s actions relating to the promotion of TVETs and Polytechnics to a joint plenary sitting of both chambers of Parliament last week on July 22, Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente said that the funding during this fiscal year is intended to help all school children get meal, All Africa reports.
The Government wants to ensure that children have proper feeding at school so that they study well and become good citizens,” he said, underscoring the importance of proper nutrition in the development of children.
As usual, the government’s support consists of Rwf56 per day as contribution to each student’s feeding while at school.
However, Members of Parliament and schools have expressed concern that the Rwf56 which the Government has been contributing to the school feeding per student a day was small and not matching the current high cost of living.
Meanwhile, in December 2020, the Premier told MPs that though the support was small, it would amount to a significant annual expenditure – about Rwf38 billion – from the national treasury given the large number of students – over 3.3 million – to support in the scaled-up school feeding.
Speaking to The New Times, MP Omar Munyaneza, Chairperson of the Chamber of Deputies’ Committee on National Budget and Patrimony said that as the expansion of the school feeding was a resolution of the Cabinet, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning told MPs that the funding that might be lacking would be catered for during this financial year budget revision.
Munyaneza said that the move will help address the situation where some children had meals at school while others did not [because they could not afford the cost], and the children who dropped out of school as they could not manage to continue studying while hungry.
In 2019 the school feeding programme was implemented in secondary schools (public and government-aided) with 680,000 students receiving Government subsidy on school meals, according to a presentation on National School Feeding Programme in Rwanda made during the Global Child Nutrition Forum (GCNF) Virtual Conference held on November 9, 2020.