Tsogwane admits food crisis in schools
Pini Bothoko | Wednesday March 8, 2017 16:04
Presenting the Ministry’s Committee of Supply speech in Parliament recently, Tsogwane said that there is food crisis in primary schools.
He revealed that the provision of double ration and second meal at primary schools is impeded by shortage of funds, non-conformity of commodities to specifications and general delays. He said his Ministry is however making every effort to resolve the delays.
The issue of shortage of food in schools has been a concern for years, and has in the past resulted in schools closing down for days.
Also, at times the schools reported not having enough food to cater for the students, resulting in schools knocking off early in order to mitigate against shortage of lunch at schools.
Some analysts have suggested that such could have contributed to decline in students’ academic performance. Breakdown in school’s supply system or the rise in demand of food rations especially when a school has a boarding facility was in the past blamed as the cause of shortage of food in most schools.
Tsogwane however said consequently, second meals at schools are provided only when supplies are adequate.
He stated that last year June, President Ian Khama declared the country drought-stricken with accompanying intervention measures to run from July 2006 to June 2017.
He said some of the key highlights and updates in the implementation of the drought presidential directive is the 25% livestock feed subsidy which ended in December 2016 as the country received good rains with resultant improved grazing.
He said to cushion the vulnerable groups and primary school-going children from nutrition deficiencies and malnutrition; supplementary feeding is on going around the country at various health facilities and primary schools until June 2017.
Tsogwane said the Rural Development Committee (RDC), as coordinator of rural livelihoods efforts and initiatives, continues to monitor implementation of the drought intervention measures as well as devise new strategies for effective drought response.
“Following the severe drought the country recently experienced, Vice President Mokgweetsi Masisi, in his capacity as the RDC Chairperson has also initiated and formed a task team to develop the country’s long term drought response strategy,” Tsogwane said.
He said the team’s work is expected to be completed by the first half of 2017. Tsogwane stated that the proposed ministry’s budget for 2017/18 is P7, 362, 909,291 for both the recurrent and development budget.
He said this amount is made up of P5, 624,898,080 for the recurrent budget, and P1, 738,011,211 for the development budget.
“The proposed 2017/2018 recurrent budget for my Ministry is P5, 624, 898,080. This reflects an increase of P715,426,390 or 15 percent more than the current year’s budget of P4,909,471,690,” Tsogwane said.