"When I feel hungry, I can't concentrate on my study. Before coming to school, I used to eat something like "Panta Bhat" (soaked rice) in the morning and take nothing while staying at the school till evening," said Selina, a class-IV student of FMB Government Primary School under Sadar Upazila of Jessore district, reports BSS.
"But, how can I stay at the school without food for such a long time. That's why I was not interested in coming to school every day and whenever I came, I eagerly wanted to escape school after tiffin period. Now the situation has changed. I don't want to miss class because our school provides free food," said the 12-year-old girl dressed in a blue and white school uniform.
Nowadays Selina became a regular student of the school and her teachers are so pleased with her. "The attendance of students has increased rapidly after launching the school feeding programme. The students of class one to five are now getting free food under this programme," the teachers said.
As a result, they said, students' attendance and attention both are now going up and no students flee school at the tiffin period.
According to the department of Primary Education under the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, the UN World Food Programme (WFP), one of the largest organisations of school feeding programmes in the developing world, and the Bangladesh government jointly launched the "School Feeding Programme" in July, 2002 targeting the schools located in food insecure rural areas and slums in the capital.
The programme was intended to distribute fortified biscuits to elementary schoolchildren in the targeted schools every day without weekend. The biscuits provide 300 kilocalories (about 15per cent of daily calorie requirement) and a range of micronutrients, contributing about 75 per cent of vitamin A, zinc, folate and iron. The goals of the programme were to increase school enrolment and attendance, reduce school repetition and dropout rates, improve attention and learning capacity by cutting short term hunger, the source added.
Bangladesh Awami League website release showed that the government and the WFP are currently supporting some 3.395 million (33.95 lakh) schoolchildren with high energy biscuits every day when they come to class.
In 2010, the programme started at all primary schools under 72 upazilas in the country when its first edition was approved. After continuing its successful implementation, the ECNEC gave its nod to the 2nd phase in December, 2014 with the expenditure of Taka 31.45 billion (314552.20 lakh). Among the allocation, the government spent Taka 21.46 billion (214599.65 lakh) and rest of the money came from the donor organisations.
Based on the WFP model, the government now covers 2.5 million (25 lakh) students under 72 upazilas from its own funding for the National School Feeding Programme. On the other hand, the WFP with the support from the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education has brought nine lakh students of 21 upazilas under the programme to scale up the attendance rate of primary students.
