More than 13,000 Grade Six pupils are benefitting from the government’s breakfast programme, which provides them with a nutritious meal every day, to improve their attentiveness in class.
This was disclosed by Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, who noted that the programme also provides regular income for persons within communities capable of distributing healthy foods.
“We hired individuals from the community and gave them a menu prepared by the Carnegie School of Home Economics. It is measured in terms of food value. And we pay them to provide the food as well as for their labour,” the education minister stated, during a recent airing of ‘The Guyana Dialogue’.
“We are feeding more than 13,000 children every morning and you haven’t seen any big complaints online. That is not to say that we haven’t had complaints. But we addressed them as soon as we get them,” Minister Manickchand pointed out.
In this year’s budget, a total of $2.1 billion was allocated to expand the programme to benefit over 85,000 pupils across the country.
The programme is in addition to the ministry’s Hot Meal Programme which serves meals to primary and primary top students in Regions One, Two, Three, Five, Seven, Eight, Nine, and Ten.
“The village does whatever the meal is going to be. The village cooks it and we give them the money and they prepare the food for the entire primary population,” the minister added.
This undertaking is just one of the ministry’s projects focused on enhancing academic achievement and attendance.
It also aligns with the government’s goal to reduce the financial burden on parents and guardians. [DPI]
