Malnutrition disorders affect more than 42 per cent of school children in Nigeria and this is responsible for about 49 per cent absenteeism among primary school age children.
The Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Dr. Idiat Oluranti Adebule, disclosed this at a workshop aimed at defining how best the Federal Government’s ‘A meal – A day School Feeding Programme’ could be implemented in the state.
Adebule, who was represented at the event by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Mr. Adesina Odeyemi, credited the statistics to African Symposium, an online journal of the African Educational Research Network.
The deputy governor noted that the overall goal of the programme in Nigeria was the reduction in the incidence of hunger and malnutrition among school children and to enhance the achievement of the Universal Basic Education in Nigeria.
She described the implementation of the Federal Government initiative of A-meal-A-day Home Grown School Feeding Programme as a right step in the right direction.
“Thus, while thinking globally and acting within the template of the Federal Government, there was the need to domesticate implementation and act locally, taking into cognizance the staple foods of the locality, nutritional value of meals, logistics, mode of selection of vendors, orientation, tradition and culture of the people amongst others,” she said.
Adebule noted that majority of Nigerian school children were missing out on a healthy start in life simply because of their background and even where they were born.
This, she said, was not their fault, adding that the school feeding programme would go a long way in assisting them.
Every Nigerian child, she added, deserved the same healthy start like children born in Asia, America and Europe, and should have a healthy start in life and a fairer opportunity to fulfill their potentials for themselves, their families and the nation.
Stressing that the government’s School Feeding Programme was a veritable way of raising literacy level, she said, “It would encourage better pupils’ enrolment rate, discourage frequent drop-out of pupils from school, thereby improving attendance, increasing concentration in class, and arguably improving children’s learning outcome and encourage the full cooperation of parents and guardians towards the success of education in Nigeria.”
