The Ministry of Education and Sports in Uganda has distanced itself from allegations that it will sponsor a milk feeding programme for learners in both private and state owned schools.
The onus will be left to parents to decide whether or not to feed their children on milk during their pursuit of studies at school.
This was clarified by the state Minister for Higher Education Hon. John C. Muyingo who watered down what he called rumours, saying they are baseless and that the Ministry has never discussed sponsoring the milk feeding programme in schools.
“As Ministry, we have never seconded such kind of proposal, because we very well know the magnitude of our revenues. Someone wakes up from bed, formulates a rumour that government will start feeding learners on milk,” said Hon. Muyingo, and added; “This falls in the category of the many proposals that are tabled before the ministry and clarified. We have never even discussed such a matter. The idea of feeding learners on milk in schools has never been deliberated by the top management of the Ministry.”
He however underlined that the Education Ministry will heighten awareness campaigns for parents on the impressive benefits of ensuring proper nutrition for learners while at school.
“As Ministry, we even allocated some funds to sensitization programmes for parents and other stakeholders to remind them of their responsibilities to their children, as stipulated in the national constitution.”
It has to be recalled that in 2015, government came up with a comprehensive plan to try and work out mechanisms under which learners in both private and state sponsored schools are availed with a cup of milk everyday, a move intended to ensure proper nutrition of these learners.
Without supplying details, Ministry of Education officials said the new development would curtail the spate of increasing school dropouts, by ensuring good nutrition and improve the performance of learners.
The programme was experimented in 9 districts which among others included Ntungamo, Sheema, Lyantonde and benefited an estimated total of 300,000 learners.
Against this background, government has plans of extending this similar programme to other schools beginning February this year, in districts of Mukono, Lwengo, Kamwenge, Kazo, Mitooma, Ibanda, Rukungiri, Kampala and Wakiso, as a foothold from which it would be extended to all schools in the country.
Fredrick Kizito, a senior nutrition advisor at Netherlands Development Association Uganda clarified that milk feeding programme in schools should not cause alarm among parents and other stakeholders because milk will be availed at subsidized prices.
“We are working with Jesa, with Milkman, Paradise, Lakeside and these processors because it is a pilot, they have subsidized milk that goes to schools. The milk you find in schools shall be at a lower price than the milk you find in the supermarket, because we are subsidizing the programme to make it affordable for the parents,” said Kizito.
George Muteekanga, the assistant commissioner in charge of private schools and institutes of higher learning in Uganda said discussions are ongoing with milk processing companies, such that this kind of arrangement is extended to schools throughout the country, this academic year.
“We are looking at an alternative of school milk as an alternative because it is accessible, affordable and we have it. The issue of who pays, it is the parent. How much does he pay, that is the issue of the parent to agree with school managers, in pre-primary, primary and secondary, that is where we are putting emphasis,” Muteekanga revealed.
Mr Muteekanga, however, advised that parents who are unable to pay through the school should be allowed to give learners money to buy milk from the school canteens during breakfast.
In September 2022, opposition MPs in Parliament bitterly criticised the compulsory milk feeding programme for learners, saying it would put parents in a financial dilemma as they were already disturbed by hikes in school fees.
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