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Parents have been urged to ensure Federal Government gets value for the money spent on the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP), by allowing their wards to attend school in order to benefit from the programme.
Parents were also advised to contribute to the monitoring of the programme in schools across the nation by ensuring vendors provide food as and when due.
Speaking with journalists in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, Monitoring Lead of the feeding programme in Oyo State, Mr. Marcus Williams, stated these during the deworming exercise for school children.
He noted that leveraging on the deworming exercise, which he described as a good initiative of the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affiars, would boost performance and enhance the well-being of children when school is in full swing as well as encourage enrollment of children in schools.
According to him, the deworming exercise was done in conjunction with relevant stakeholders and Ministry of Health, which provided deworming tablets for children in public schools.
He maintained that the programme was targeted at children in schools and support their feeding during school hours.
“Children grow well not only physically, but also psychologically when you feed them well and deworm them.
“The feeding programme will encourage the children to come to school as well as boost their performance because they don’t need to worry about where the next meal is coming from.
“The programme has recorded increase in the uptake of educational services by children of primary school age, especially in public schools.
“This is because children benefiting share the news by word of mouth that they are sure of a meal per day.
“It also promoted punctuality because none of the children want to miss out on the food, it has helped children to stay in school (retention ).
“State government should play its role in the implementation of the programme by taking up the responsibility for primary four to six and ensure the right vendors are engaged,” Williams said.