Parents Decry FG Suspends Free School Feeding In Ondo
The parents and stakeholders in the education sector in Ondo state on Thursday decried the suspension of the National Home grown school feeding programme initiated by the federal government in the state barely two weeks after the porogramme was launched in the state.
The parents under the aegis of Concern Parents in a statement issued in Akure, said the federal government used the programme to deceive parents and primary school pupils in the state.
It would be recalled that Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, paid a two day working visit to the state about four weeks ago, where the school feeding programme was inaugurated.
The programme of one square meal for primary school per day was one of the cardinal programme of President Muhammadu Buhari’s led administration to ameliorate the suffering of the poor masses across the country.
Speaking on behalf of the group, Ademola Folarin alleged that the programme is being faced with financial challenge in the state while all the cooks have stopped to feed pupils in public schools.
They noted that the programme which was not implemented in the state until this year 2018 only lasted for three weeks before it started having serious problem of funding by the government.
According to them, the appointed or selected food vendors saddled with the responsibility of providing food for the feeding programme suspended the programme base on non- availability of fund to carry out the programme.
Folarin said, the hope of the parents who were happy that the burden of feeding their ward will be reduced by the government has now been dashed.
He revealed that the few schools selected for programme in the state enjoyed it very well for just three days before the visit of the Vice President Prof Yemi Osinbajo, and immediately after the visit, the programme only lasted for three weeks before its total collapsed.
He stated further that for more than two weeks now, none of the selected school have enjoyed the school feeding programme in the state.
His words, “We discovered that the way the programme was organized by the government was faulty as the various selected schools were not giving adequate information or data about the food vendors attached to their various schools.
“At the Methodists Primary School, Gbogi, Akure, it was discovered that the food vendor attached to the school to provide food to about 65 pupils in the school just disappeared without any information. It took the school management a lot of efforts before they could get her telephone number.
“It was after this that she was asked why she didn’t show up in school and she told the school management that she has not received any alert to prepare food for the pupils.
“Also at St Peter’s Demonstration Primary School, the situation was almost the same, even at Fanibi Primary School, Annex and Sacred Heart Primary School, pupils were seen waiting during the school break for the cooks to arrive, but none of them came till the end of the break time as vendors attached to the school could not go there since there was no fund.”
Folarin said, “The state governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, during the launching of the programme in the state expressed his administration’s readiness to recruit about 1500 medically-fit and trained cooks to ensure the success of the scheme”.
Confirming the development, the state Commissioner for Information, Mr. Yemi Olowolabi, said there was delayed in the payment of the money of the cooks due to some challenges.
Olowolabi said there was discrepancies in the account of the food vendors saying most of the accounts failed to tally with their Bank Verification Number (BVN).
According to Olowolabi ,all the accounts would be harmonised by next week and the payment would be made to ensure the success of the scheme.