Food crisis hits public schools hard
Baboki Kayawe | Thursday January 12, 2017 18:00
Though a perennial problem, the situation appeared grimmer in the Kgalagadi area where multitudes of boarding students who arrived a day before the school calendar commenced on Tuesday, went to bed on empty stomachs.
Authorities around the country said the problems were largely due to poor and delayed procurement as well as funding problems within the public school sector.
The state of affairs was dire at Kgolagano Junior Secondary School in Middlepits, where some students are reported to have fainted due to hunger. The bulk of learners there are boarding students, many of whom hail from Bokspits and surrounding villages.
“The situation is bad. Students slept hungry and some collapsed owing to hunger,” an authoritative source at the school said.
“Delays in food supply are unacceptable because the school calendar was released well on time, and procurement should have been timely.” School management was unavailable for comment yesterday.
Other areas have been affected as well. At Mphutlhe JSS in the Kweneng area, students missed lunch on Tuesday due to the crisis. Meat supplies are also said to be in trouble as suppliers have withheld their products due to be the ministry’s debt.
“There was no food in a number of schools on the first day. It’s sad because most areas in Kweneng, Kgalagadi and Central admit learners on a boarding basis and many of them are from remote areas. They learn far from home,” another source said. Many of the affected learners are those registered under the Remote Area Dwellers Programme, which benefits people living more than 15 kilometres from established villages and settlements without access to education and other amenities. Learners under this programme are generally socially and economically marginalised.
An administrator in the Middlepits said the situation had eased at his school after negotiations with suppliers who are owed money. The supplier delivered food yesterday morning after a brief stand-off.
“The supply in most schools is just not enough to last the whole term. The situation will normalise temporarily, but if adequate procurement is not done, the crisis will resurface and disturb school businesses,” the administrator said. Yesterday, the Ministry of Basic Education acknowledged the food shortages, but said they were limited to Kgolagano JSS. Chief public relations officer, Oteng Mokowe said Kgolagano had been affected by flawed procurement processes.
“We received reports that students didn’t have food at Kgolagano JSS, but the truth is that there was complacency as those responsible for buying food didn’t do so,” he said.
Mokowe said funds for food were deposited into all school accounts on January 5.
Asked whether the day was too late for proper procurement to be done, Mokowe said the fact that teachers no longer took holiday breaks meant there had been time to engage suppliers and arrange for deliveries.
“If the time factor is an issue, the school management should have engaged the regional office to make arrangements to secure food from those neighbouring schools that had excess food. That is what happened yesterday,” Mokowe said.
A total of P14.9 million has been disbursed towards junior secondary school food supply for the entire term.