The Lagos State government has begun the review of its home-grown school feeding programme one month after its launch.
The executive chairman of the state’s Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Wahab Alawiye-King, said the exercise, which is expected to hold periodically, is to ensure smooth and hitch-free operations of the national programme.
He stated this at an interactive session organised by the state’s SUBEB with the major stakeholders of the programme, including agricultural officers, food vendors, ministry of health officials, local government desk officers, teachers, quality assurance officers and officials from SUBEB.
Alawiye-King, a former chairman of the state’s House of Assembly Committee on Education, disclosed that a total of 774 public primary schools with pupils from Primary 1 to 3 had so far hooked on to the one-month old programme across the state, and that the remaining 234 schools would join soon.
He noted that a total of 1,106 food vendors were accredited across the state for the programme while government is looking for a way to extend the programme to cover the pupils in kindergarten, as well as Primary 4 and 5 in future.
According to him, Lagos State is determined to serve the beneficiary children not only varieties but balanced diets as lunch each day for five days weekly and under hygienic condition.
“We want the free food to serve as a motivation for enrollment particularly by the out-of- school children and their retention till completion of studies and also to boost their bodily growth and development.”
“So, we want to be proactive in our approach and not to wait for challenges before looking for solution. We don’t want people to give excuses no matter how genuine they may appear let alone cutting corner while discharging their duties. We want Lagos school feeding programme to be a model for other states including those already in it long ago,” he said.
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