Food and education are two of the
fundamental rights of every child in developing countries like Bangladesh.
Food has direct relation on education as poor nutrition and health due to lack
of food among school children contributes to the inefficiency of the
educational system. Education consists of qualitative learning that enables to
face competitiveness as well as behavioural change. Since primary education
makes foundation of lifelong learning journey therefore learning of primary
school children is a challengeable issue that depends on some touchy matters
like regular attendance, attentive participation in the classroom activities,
development of intelligences etc. with other elements. And nourishment in the
process of children’s’ learning mostly depend on hunger free existence in the
classroom. Food has significant positive impact on learning as it ensure of
gaining required energy for attentive participation in the classroom activities
during long contact hour at as well as encourage children to attend regularly
at school. Children, who suffer from protein-energy malnutrition and hunger, do
not have the same potential for learning as healthy children. Hunger and poor
nutrition diminish children’s cognitive development by reducing their ability
to participate actively in the teaching-learning activity that is the vital
issue to be addressed for ensuring their qualitative learning.
Everyday more than 66 million children go
to school hungry in developing countries like Bangladesh. Research shows that
providing mid-day meals, mid-morning snacks or school feeding programme can
increase children’s attention as well as abilities to concentrate classroom
activities and perform specific tasks by alleviating short-term hunger. Realizing
the effectiveness in learning by removing short-term hunger, the government
with the support of international donors and some NGOs introduced humble
initiative of School Feeding Program (SFP) in selected primary schools all over
the country. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) conducted
a comprehensive evaluation of the impact of the SFP in Bangladesh and evaluation
findings indicate that SFP has raised school enrollment by 14.2 percent,
reduced the probability of dropping out of school by 7.5 percent and increased
school attendance by about 1.3 days a month.
In the era of commercialization of
education, it is realistically true that most of the students of mainstreaming
primary education in Bangladesh
are either from lower middle class sections of the community or poverty
stricken families. Definitely they are the victims of malnutrition and curse of
hunger. As a result, drop out and attendance rate are really alarming as well
as children’s achieved learning is not satisfactory to face modern days
competitiveness although the country has achieved the pragmatic success in
bringing almost all of the school aged children into primary schools. The
premier reason behind said issues is that a significant part of primary school
children are coming at schools with empty stomach. Confessing the hard reality
of facing the issues that prevail in the mainstreaming primary education
system, the government badly needs to remove the curse of hunger and
malnutrition regarding to ensure children’s regular and attentive participation
in the classroom activities. Otherwise, hunger and malnutrition will hinder
severely children to strengthen their foundation in lifelong learning journey
that compel them to survive in the competitive world. Regarding this, the government may start
School Feeding Programme (SFP) in all government run primary schools all over
the country as SFP contributes to the education and well-being of children. A
hungry child does not grow, cannot learn as well and faces many health risks in
the future. A daily school meal provides a strong incentive to the families for
sending off springs to school and keeping them there. It allows children to
focus on their studies rather than their stomachs. SFP helps to improve
performances on school exams and promote normal progression from grade to grade
in completing primary education graduation. It also reduces maternal and infant
mortality in the future as it helps younger girl children to make healthier
women. Moreover, SFP will enable to make healthy Bangladesh by removing deficiencies
of critical nutrients such as iodine, vitamin A and iron among the future
generation of the country. SFP supports development of children for becoming
healthy and productive adults by removing hunger and micro-nutrient deficiencies
that can cause irreversible damage to their growing bodies.
It might be the toughest challenge for the
government to take the humble initiative of introducing SFP in all primary
schools with own resources. So, the government may start the programme on a
Public-Private Partnership (PPP) or with the support of domestic and
international NGOs or philanthropic donors. The government can ask technical
and operational assistance to start the gigantic initiative from an
international organization, The Akshaya Patra of India which has vast experiences of
serving mid-day meals to more than 1.4 million children maintaining strong
qualitative and hygienic standards. The
government should be required sufficient funds, technological innovations, delivery
vehicles facilities, quality maintain technologies, volunteers, efficient
management team, and support from stakeholders to manage such kind of massive
operation. The government might be given the responsibility of starting SFP or
mid day meal programme to different local and international NGOs like Educate
the World [UK]
for different districts to manage such operations on PPP.
Our children are the future of our country
and it is the high time for developing them to survive in the competitive world
by strengthening their learning in basic education dispeling their sufferings from
hunger and malnutrition. Therefore, humble beginning of School Feeding
Programme or Mid Day Meal Programme into primary schools could be the best way
of developing future generation of the country as valuable human resources for
the betterment of the country.
MD BAYAZID KHAN
The writer is working
for primary education in Bangladesh.
