Niger to begin free school feeding in public primary schools in February

THE Niger State government says it will commence free feeding for pupils in public primary schools in February 2017.

Mrs Afiniki Dauda, the Special Adviser on Empowerment and Social Protection to Governor Abubakar Bello, disclosed this.

Mrs Dauda made the disclosure while addressing newsmen on Friday in Minna, the state capital.

She said that application forms had been distributed to interested prospective food vendors across the state and that the food vendors are expected to fill and return the forms in January for selection.

The special adviser said that the free feeding is restricted to pupils in public schools alone, while each food vendor is expected to feed 100 pupils.

“We have done our mapping of the pupils we have in every local government area to encourage enrolment at an early stage,” she said.

Dauda said it was not the responsibility of the government to go from house to house prevailing on parents to send their children to school.

“It is the responsibility of parents to bring their children to school,” she noted.

She said that parents would be encouraged to register their children in school when they noticed that their contemporaries in school are fed every day.