By Blessings Mpinganjira:
The Ministry of Education has reiterated that school meals programmes have stepped up enrolment in schools where they are being implemented in selected schools in the country.
Principal Secretary for Basic Education in the ministry Rachel Chimbwete Phiri made the remarks in Lilongwe on Friday at a cooking competition for beneficiaries of the World Food Programme (WFP) and European Union (EU)- funded ‘Tsogolo la Thanzi’ project.
Chimbwete Phiri said government’s desire is to scale up the programme to all primary schools across the country.
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“The programme has proven to be adaptive in unforeseen circumstances like when Tropical Cyclone Freddy and Covid hit Malawi, hence, it needs more funds,” the PS said.
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WFP is the largest provider of school meals in Malawi. The United Nations agency has been doing this since 1999.
Since then, millions of schoolchildren have received the meals to “enable them to stay in school, concentrate, and learn better”.
WFP Deputy Country Director Simon Denhere said 700,000 schoolchildren are benefiting from the programme in the Southern Region.
“Moving forward, we want to extend the homegrown school feeding programme to the Northern Region to make sure that no child is left behind,” Denhere said.
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On his part, EU Head of Cooperation Ivo Hoefkens said EU will keep on investing in the programme as it has registered success when it comes to promoting primary school education.
“We are working on pumping €27 million to extend the ‘Tsogolo la Thanzi’ project across the country,” Hoefkens said.
