The current prices of the school staple foods, beans, maize flour and rice range from Sh 4,000 and Shs6,000 per kilogram, prompting school administrators to adjust and regulate menus and feeding schedules in order to stay withing the available budgets.
High food prices cause panic in government schools, parents to feed children
Government schools have withdrawn regular meals for learners over rising food prices and underfunding from government and lack of parental support.
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Central region
Francis Nsubuga Ssematimba, the Headteacher of St Maria Goretti Mpugwe in Masaka City, and Chairperson of Uganda National Teachers Union for Masaka, says that their efforts to source additional funding from parents was frustrated by government's refusal to increase school dues at the end of last term.
He says that the increasing prices have overstretched their budgets forcing them to introduce restrictions in feeding learners, despite the negative repercussions that this might have on learning capacity. Instead of the usual break time cup of porridge, the learners are receiving a cup of black tea at break time, and a cup of porridge for lunch to substitute posho and beans.
Northern region
According to Walter Nyeko, Headteacher of St Joseph’s College Layibi in Gulu City, the situation could lead to premature closure of schools. He laments the lack of initiative from parents to support their children, as the school stuggles to meet meals for fear of a strike.
However, he said that the food insecurity in the region has spread to families making them unable to extend support to schools.
“It’s very hard to handle the situation at the moment, we have maintained the food ration because we don’t want to see them stage a strike. The parents are however not helping us because they are also facing the same challenge, they haven’t paid for fees,” Nyeko explained in an interview.
Santo Opira, Headteacher of Unifat Nursery and Primary School in Gulu, says that they have had to make parents responsible for getting food for children. Each parent is now required to provide the school with 10 kilograms of beans, 15 kilograms of maize flour, and 5 kilograms of rice per child in the school.
Peter Ojok, the teacher in charge of welfare at Bishop Angelo Tarantino Memorial secondary school, and Samson Adrabo, the Headteacher of Golden Treasure Nursery and Primary school, both in Arua City, say that they have reduced food portions to sustain feeding the entire school population.
Eastern region
The Head of School Feeding Program at World Food Program (WFP), Everest Biko, says that high food prices have brought about fear of impending decrease of food ratios from the organisation.
WFP extends food to over 100,000 children annually in all secondary and primary schools in the Karamoja sub-region to encourage enrollment into school and completion of studies.
Biko explains that the current food insecurity was triggered by the drought, nonetheless, that the price increment has come as a shock to their budget and resources that sustain the entire program.
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