Minister of Education Priya Manickchand yesterday announced that a country-wide investigation of the national school feeding programme is underway after students of Kato Primary School, in Region Eight, were made to physically transport logs to be used as firewood to cook their meals.
Manickchand told a news conference that the exploitation of the children, which occurred in the absence of the school’s headmistress, was isolated but she added that investigations have started across the country to ensure that this is the case.
The press conference was convened after the situation was made public in a report in yesterday’s edition of the Kaieteur News, headlined ‘Hinterland primary students trek miles with logs for hot meals.’ The report was accompanied by photos of the young boys and girls in school uniforms walking in a line with logs hoisted on their shoulders.
Manickchand pointed out that the funds provided to the Kato school under the school feeding programme are meant for payment for all food supplies, a small stipend to the cooks preparing the meals, fuels used in the meal preparation, including firewood, cleaning supplies for the school kitchen and all other expenditures associated with the provision of the daily meals.
She said the school receives $474 059 on a monthly basis to provide daily meals for the approximately 137 children enrolled.
“At no time should children be asked to fetch firewood, water or engage in any programme-related activity that could be deemed as exploitation of children,” Manickchand said, while noting that it was agreed upon by the community, in a signed document prior to the commencement of the programme, that parents would be asked to contribute firewood for cooking.
According to Manickchand, preliminary inquiries have uncovered that the situation occurred when the head teacher of the school Karen Abrams was on leave and another person was left in charge of the school for five days.
“The Head-teacher was advised that there should be no recurrence of this or any other related practice” she stressed.
She added that a visit to the school will be done before next Friday as part of an effort to ensure that all other schools engaged in the feeding programme adhere to the rules. Manickchand emphasised that the Ministry views this incident as a serious matter and that at no time should children be called upon to engage in non-curricular activities during school hours.
While the Kaieteur News report quoted Regional Democratic Council (RDC) Mohamed Nieem Gafoor as saying that that the discovery was recently made by a team from the RDC during a visit to the area, Manickchand said the activity happened a while ago and not recently.
Further, she noted that the issue of children fetching wood was never brought to the attention of the Ministry. “Visits to the school are done regularly and this issue of children fetching wood to get meals was never brought to the attention of the Ministry of Education,” she said.
She also suggested that the intent of the councilor who brought the incident to light was malicious and political. “The Regional Democratic Council is fully responsible and [he] should spank himself first…He is just as responsible. If he is truly involved then he ought to know that this is not a daily thing…This is not done two or three times weekly. The council should be more civic and responsible,” she said.
The newspaper report also quoted Gafoor as saying that the conditions of the kitchen were unsanitary and that there was no adequate storage facility and as a result dried meat and fish is stored in sacks that are placed on the floors.
“It is an indictment on the entire community to say that the kitchen is insanitary. You should not go into people’s community and say that their kitchen is insanitary. The kitchen may be deemed humble, but not insanitary. $250 000 has been spent on this kitchen. The kitchen has also met the standards of the Ministry of Education. The cooks were trained and certified as food handles by the Ministry of Health,” Manickchand said.
Kato Primary School is one of 92 schools benefitting from the community-based school feeding programme, which if funded by the government through the ministry. Government is spending $1.2 billion on the school feeding programme this year and 64,000 children are expected to benefit.
