By Mduduzi Mabuza
It is over 4 months since the Eswatini government stopped the school feeding programme in most school across the country. This means school going kids have to carry a lunch box or pocket money. In an interview with Mr Nerville Johnson who is teacher from one of the primary schools in Mbabane, he said, “School feeding is an important program for school going learners both at primary school and high school. Many children come from poverty stricken families, some come from unstable families where there is one parent or none at all. The cost of living has gone up and thus the single parent and child headed families struggle to get something to eat each day.” In this spirit, school feeding programme helps the less privileged learners who come to school with empty stomachs. Some depend on this food not only for lunch but even for all necessary meals. Once they get the food at school, they are now full and done for the day, they will get another meal the next day and not at home. So banning the school feeding scheme is not a wise thing to do. Food is necessary for a school child both physically and psychologically. For the learner to work well and concentrate in class, he or she must have had food. If the learner would come from home to school with an empty stomach, made to stay at school without getting something to eat, he or she might sleep in class, perform badly in his or her studies and can even abscond classes. So the school feeding programme is important in the life of learners and must be restored.
