National School Feeding Programme receives $2.1B for expansion

The government will continue the roll out its National School Feeding Programme across the country, as part of its efforts to ensure that school-aged children in all regions have sufficient nourishment to promote learning and to ease the financial burden on parents.

It was pointed out that for 2023, the government has allocated some $2.1 billion for this initiative which will benefit over 85,000 students across the country.

This allocation reaffirms the government’s commitment to ensuring education remains a top priority.

“Additionally, a new Home-Grown School Feeding Programme, which allows communities to provide fresh vegetables and milk among other food products to schools, will also be introduced,” Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh told the National Assembly on Monday during the 2023 budget presentation.

It was pointed out that this initiative will provide locally produced ingredients to prepare healthy meals for students.

As such, the feeding programme, which includes juice and biscuits, and hot meals, will address the nutritional intake of young children, improving their attentiveness during classes.

It was disclosed that this venture will also create job opportunities for persons who are capable of delivering the hot meals programme at these schools.

In 2022, some $2 billion was allocated for the initiative which benefitted some 12,401 students countrywide, while generating employment for some 235 persons through the programme.

Further, the initiative also forms part of the government’s plan to expand the national feeding programme in all primary schools across Guyana.

It was disclosed that under the PPP/C government, students in the hinterland were the first to benefit.

Meanwhile, in keeping with its commitment to achieving universal access to education, the government intends to procure over $3.4 billion in textbooks for secondary and primary schools, as compared to $1.2 billion in 2022.

It was revealed that the government also intends to have all teachers fully trained by 2025 which is in keeping with President, Irfaan Ali’s world-class education vision.

Additionally, the Cyril Potter College of Education will adopt a hybrid approach combining in-house competence and online courses to accomplish this by increasing intake to accommodate about 2,000 trainee teachers annually.