The governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-rufai has commenced the State’s free feeding programme for 1.5 million pupils across the state.
At the programme in Aliyu Makama Road Primary School, Barnawa, Kaduna, El-Rufai said the gesture marked the starting of a new phase of the Kaduna State Government’s project to expand access to free education in the state.
He said that the programme would save parents break-time money and also empower the women within the community who have been made catering vendors in the various schools across the State.
The governor stated that today is a special day in the unfolding of the change agenda the APC was elected to implement. He’s moved by the responsibility to implement the school feeding programme for primary school pupils.
The Kaduna State Government will be providing a meal for 1.5m pupils every school day starting from today. It is an unprecedented undertaking in this state, but one that we solemnly pledged to do when we were campaigning. It is a challenge in terms of its scale, cost and the logistics required to deliver the meals everyday but our children deserve it.
He further said the school feeding programme is directly creating 17,000 jobs for catering vendors, each of whom will need to employ workers to help them deliver which means there is something for everyone in the School Feeding Programme.
He added that in seeking to take care of our children, we are creating jobs, boosting demand and exposing our people to new skills and hygiene standards and providing extra income.
He urged everyone involved in the programme to discharge their responsibilities with the utmost sense of commitment, transparency and accountability. The monitoring mechanism must be rigorous, and we invite the school-based management committees and Parent-Teacher Associations to review and provide us their observations on the implementation of the programme at the school level.
The Commissioner of Education, Science and Technology in the State, Dr. Shehu Usman Adamu, said emergency lines had been provided for callers to access the state free feeding programme.
