School feeding an incentive for pupils and parents

In a bid to increase attendance at primary schools the World Food Programme (WFP) has started a school feeding programme in Angola. The programme aims to reach up to 220,000 pupils in more than 1,000 schools in 13 of the 18 provinces by 2004. For the 50 percent of Angolan children who have access to formal education, a plate of food is a significant incentive to stay in school. The major migrations that have followed the end of the war have increased the pressure on an already strained educational system. In 2000 public expenditure on education was less than 2 percent of GDP – much lower than other countries in sub-Saharan Africa. A UN report identified the rebuilding and improvement of the primary education system as a key factor in the development of Angola. Relative to other African and developing countries it also lags behind in primary school enrolment, and the ratio of drop-outs is higher in Angola as well. "Unless huge investments are made in education, there is a risk of both present and future generations reaching adulthood without the basic skills of literacy and numeracy, wider civic and life-skills knowledge, or potential work-place skills," the report stated. The school feeding programme, launched in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and several NGOs, aims to take the first steps towards the full enrolment of school-going age children by 2015. School participation will be facilitated primarily in rural areas, although some urban schools will also be included in the programme. At Santo António catholic school in Benguela, 400 km south of the capital, Luanda, the pupils, who are between five and 14 years old, are already benefiting from the feeding scheme. "I see improvements in the children's performance after one week if they are given food. They are more willing to attend. They were much more tired before – they could not concentrate and some fell asleep. Children sometimes went home because they were hungry," said Sister Teresa Cambundo, one of the 11 teachers at the school. She told IRIN there had not been a single case of malnutrition since the school started serving food. Before the feeding scheme started, many pupils had been on the brink of malnutrition - now each gets a plate of thick porridge made of maize and bean flour. "We had problems [before,] getting the children to school. The parents wanted them to help finding food, or work in the field. Now the parents encourage them to go to school," Sister Cambundo said. Despite the improvement, WFP is cautious not to add schools to the programme until the organisation is satisfied they will be able to manage the new responsibility. "We do not do this for the sake of implementing. If we do, the food might end up in wrong hands," said Peter Rodrigez, WFP head of base in Lobito, a major port city 350 km south of Luanda. The threat to successful implementation is, according to him, connected to poor infrastructure and lack of firewood and water. To make sure the programme runs smoothly, WFP will closely monitor schools, which will be required to have at least one parents' association participating. Rodrigez said attendance books would also be checked and reconciled against the amount of food handed out every week. Schools would be given small amounts of food in frequent shipments, rather than a few big shipments, to prevent squandering and theft. It will be some time before the programme is fully implemented. According to the plan, pupils will get two meals every day – breakfast and lunch. "[However,] in the beginning some schools might just be able to serve breakfast," Rodrigez said. One of the schools to be included in the programme is situated in a poor, crowded suburb of Lobito, where small brick houses cling to the porous and dusty slopes, lacking sanitary facilities, water and electricity. Most of the people living there are returnees, and many malnourished infants and young children have had to go for therapeutic feeding. Few of the children have ever gone to school. The school has just been built, but is yet to open because the kitchen has not yet been completed. WFP expects between 600 and 700 of these pupils to benefit from the school feeding scheme.