Government makes U-turn, to feed pupils in schools

The Ministry of Education and Sports has announced plans to begin feeding learners in all government schools across the country, a decision that marks a significant shift in the national education policy. The revelation was made on December 5 by the Minister of Education, Ms Janet Kataha Museveni, at State House Nakasero, Kampala, during the presentation of the National Ruling Movement (NRM) manifesto progress report for her ministry.

Ms Museveni disclosed that the ministry has approved proposals to include school feeding in the National Budget for the 2025/2026 financial year.

This development marks a departure from the government’s long-standing position that parents should shoulder the responsibility of feeding their children while it handles school fees under universal education programmes.

Ms Museveni said her ministry has since commissioned the national plan of digitising the school feeding information, as well as issued the feeding guidelines to all schools.

“This is a programme that is ongoing and we hope and pray that perhaps by 2026, the government may have found a way to provide feeding in schools, at least for primary schools, to start with,” she said.

This means the government will be required to feed at least 9.2 million learners in the Universal Primary Education (UPE) programme from 12,551 government schools, according to data extracted from the Ministry of Education Management Information system (EMIS) as of June, 2024. Over the years, Ms Museveni has consistently emphasised the role of parents in feeding their children at school, often drawing criticism for some who see it as unrealistic.

Sources within the Ministry of Education told Monitor that the government’s decision to change course was influenced by the dire consequences of learners depending on packed meals.

Sources indicated that reports highlighted that many parents could not pack food due to financial constraints, leaving their children to rely on friends or, in some cases, resort to theft.

Sources also indicated that the ministry noted that packed food often lacked proper storage, leading to contamination, and even cases of food poisoning.

“The above dangers of packed food have forced the ministry to standardise feeding in schools to ensure all learners get a hot meal,” one source revealed. “This eliminates disparities where some learners admire their peers whose parents can afford better meals.”

The new policy aims to create equity in learning environments and ensure all students can focus on their studies without worrying about food.

How policy will be implemented

Despite the minister’s announcement that the draft policy on school feeding has already been formulated, a highly placed source revealed that consultations are ongoing to determine  critical aspects such as the cost of food per learner, the amount each school should receive, the types of meals to be provided, and the number of meals learners will receive daily.

There is still debate over whether learners should be given both breakfast and lunch or just a single meal. Some sources suggest that the government may allocate funds for schools to buy locally sourced food based on the region.

For instance, schools in western Uganda, known for milk production, could be supported to buy milk and eggs for learners. “If the government starts this policy of feeding learners on the available food in their locality, it will create scarcity in those areas because what is produced will be consumed by schools. This will push production to increase over time,” one source said.

Reactions

Mr Kirabira Hasadu, the chairperson of the Uganda National Association of Private Schools and Institutions, welcomed the introduction of the feeding policy.

“I hope the government does not sideline service delivery as far as quality is concerned. Let it not be a deal for some officials to supply food to schools but consider quality,” Mr Kirabira said.

The Secretary General of Uganda National Teachers Union, Mr Filbert Baguma, welcomed the plan but warned that the funds provided should be enough. He said once implemented, it will go a long way to address the issues of school dropout and absenteeism.

“Packing food for learners by parents failed, thus the government coming up with the idea of feeding learners is welcome. But I hope the money will be adequate because already, the capitation grant given per learner is low,” Mr Baguma said.

Mr Kirabira said an average private school spends about Shs5,000 per boarding learner daily, of which Shs1,000 is for breakfast, Shs2,000 for lunch and Shs2,000 for super.

If the government adopts a rate of private schools, it would spend Shs3,000 per learner daily, of which Shs1,000 goes to breakfast and Shs2,000 for lunch, foregoing Shs2,000 since all UPE schools are mandated to run only the day section. This means a school with 800 learners would require Shs216 million for feeding alone over a 90-day term. Scaling this to the 12,551 primary schools, the government would need Shs2.7 trillion annually.

OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS

Ms Museveni highlighted several achievements of her ministry under the NRM manifesto. She revealed that rehabilitation of 120 traditional schools, including St Henry’s Kitovu, Gayaza High School and St Peter’s College, will begin next year, funded by the World Bank’s Global Partnership for Education.

She also announced plans to construct more secondary schools to ensure every sub-county has at least one.

A total of 258 secondary schools are set to be built, with 114 already completed and 144 set for completion by June 2025. Additionally, construction of 116 new schools under the Uganda Secondary Expansion Project will soon begin.

The government’s school feeding programme and infrastructure developments aim to address educational barriers, but questions remain about the sustainability of these initiatives amid other sector priorities.