…..School teachers frown at the reduction in attendance due to the suspended school feeding program.
The traditional ruler of Burak, Shongom local government, Kaltungo chiefdom, gombe state, His Royal Highness Gondak Garba, has come for adequate structures and policies that will encourage girl child education in the chiefdom, the state and Northern Nigeria. He disclosed this in an interview with justthinkingaloud90.blogspot.com recently he said
“There are policies which ordinarily attracts young people, especially girl child to school and if such are provided by the government.
“It will go a long way at improving their interest in school. “These includes school feeding program and other social activities. “As you know when you educate a girl child, you have educated a nation.
“Government must be willing to use Punitive measures in dealing with parents, who are not given to girl child education, I assure you that as traditional rulers, we will be very willing to ensure that it materialises.
“This will go a long way in mitigating child labours, and all forms of abuse. “What I did as Mainguwa, was to call village heads, pastors to prevail on the parents of girl child and religious leaders” he added.
Officials at the Bubayero Primary school Gombe, who begged for anonymity noted that numbers of students in primary School have significantly dropped males 171 and females 121 (Pry 1, 2018), unlike 70 males, and 64 females (pry 1, 2019). We have been experiencing a decline in the number of school children ever since the term commenced.
Dauda Musa, a primary three student of Bubayero primary school told our correspondent through an interpreter that his class is becoming empty since the beginning of this term Musa said “Some of my friends no longer come to school. ” This began when we noticed the absence of food vendors from our school. I have chosen to stay because I was in school before the school feeding program began” he said.
Meanwhile, Justthinkingaloud90.blogspot.com has discovered that ever since the resumption of third term the food vendors are yet to return back to school this has also affected the population of students from primary 1-3 whom are beneficiaries of the federal government school feeding program. When our correspondent spoke with Jemima Dogo, head teacher of Tidi primary Burak, Gombe state. she noted that “A lot of students had stopped coming to school,since the commencement of this term at the moment we have just 155 pupils unlike previous terms where the number grew to 400. “Ever since they realized that the food vendors were no longer coming, majority of them stopped coming, some others have put their focus into other things. “We are still hopeful that they will return once the programme is resuscitated in full flight” she noted
Ibrahim Zana, the state consultant of School home grown feeding programme in an interview with our correspondent has said that funding is the reason why the school feeding program is yet to commence for this term he said “Funding is the challenge, there is no how it can continue without the necessary funding. “They have little challenge with funding, you know it from Ministry of Economic Planning and it is paid by Central Bank of Nigeria. “We usually intimate them of the need to resolve funding challenge, there is no cause for alarm once other States are mobilized Gombe too will get it share and mobilize the relevant stakeholders like our Food Vendors, who have been on standby. “2-3 weeks ago in my visit to Abuja, funding was discussed as the major reason for the temporary break and we look forward to resolving it so that our children can once again enjoy their meals. “On a daily basis I get over 5 calls from various Head teachers who are waiting for the commencement of the exercise” he added.
