Bauchi records sharp drop in school attendance as free meal stops

Rauf Oyewole, Bauchi

Schools in Bauchi State have recorded a sharp drop in attendance of pupils in lower basic over discontinuation of the Federal Government’s School Feeding Programme, where learners get free meals to aid learning.

Education Secretary, Katagum local government of the State, Adamu Mohammed said that “During the school feeding programme, attendance was always about 90 percent. The pupils were happy going to class and the parents had huge relief.

“Suddenly after the stoppage of the programme by the government, we have recorded a reduction to about 40 to 45 percent of attendance,” he said.

Mohammed urged the government to revisit the conditional cash transfer programme which was targeted at the poorest of the poor parents to send their wards to schools.

He revealed that most of the parents use their children to earn a living through hawking and other petty trading, conditional cash transfer will serve as an incentive for them.

However, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in its survey report released recently said that 10 states (Bauchi, Adamawa, Borno, Gombe, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kebbi, Kaduna and Yobe) where Safe School Initiative is ongoing performed poorly in most of the minimum standards of making school safe for learners.

In the report, most of the schools in Bauchi do not have perimeter fences, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), nutrition, violence against children, security among other requirements.

The UN Agency in partnership with the Bauchi State Universal Basic Education Board had last week disseminated the outcome of the survey to the 20 council education secretaries, ordering them to domesticate the recommendations given.