Statement by the André Gaum, Western Cape Education Department

More than 156 000 learners in 866 schools across the Western Cape will receive support from the Primary School Nutrition Programme (PSNP) managed by the Western Cape Education Department (WCED).

The PSNP is a school-feeding scheme that aims to provide basic nutrition to as many schools as possible where such a need has been established. The programme will now for the first time be managed by the WCED. The Health Department previously managed it.

Learners from Grade R to grade 7 in public ordinary schools identified as most in need according to the WCED poverty index are the targets of this programme. This means that approximately 27.5% of all learners in the province will receive this basic nutrition.

The food pack includes a peanut butter and jam sandwich and a high-energy drink.

The number of feeding days have been standardised to 156 days to ensure that learners receive school feeding on at least 80% of annual school days. However, in the Western Cape, school feeding has been extended to 170 days.

The menu options, food specifications, costing of the four basic menu options that include cooked and non-cooked foods, and the provision of the necessary utensils and equipment for preparation and serving of the meals, are also standardised.

We have decided on one standardised menu option and that is the peanut butter/jam sandwich and the high-energy drink that may come in different flavours.

Standardised food safety monitoring systems and a standardised monitoring system to ensure regular school feeding is in place.

School feeding will be done by non-profit organisations that have been contracted to perform this duty by the WCED. Each organisation will be responsible for ensuring that children are fed by ten o'clock each day, and will not be permitted to use learners or educators to prepare the food.

At each EMDC, project co-ordinators and fieldworkers will be responsible for ensuring that the programme is implemented properly in each of the identified schools.

The Directorate Specialised Education Support Services is managing the transition of the programme in partnership with the Directorate Comprehensive Health Programmes: Sub - Directorate Nutrition. Although the WCED takes over the programme in the new term, the Department of Health remains a partner with the Department of Education in the PSNP.

Since 1994, the Department of Health ran and managed the PSNP as part of an integrated nutrition programme.

There reasons for the WCED taking over the programme are that schools are the functional responsibility of the Department of Education, and secondly, that school feeding contributes to improved learning. It also removes a social barrier to learning and, placed within the broader context of education development, would be more easily sustained as part of school-based management.

Our approach to the programme differs in so far as we hope that as the programme develops, we can integrate it more fully within school management programmes, such as the establishment of school gardens, and a link to healthy nutrition in the learning programmes. However, the status quo will remain the same for the first phase of the transfer, with the same schools being fed, by the same service providers.

The Nutrition Programme provides our department with another opportunity to ensure schools become effective spaces for teaching and learning. It will provide thousands of learners who often have nothing to eat with the basic sustenance that enables them to concentrate on learning.

The demand for such a programme is ever on the increase and it is difficult to provide to all schools in need. However, the difference the programme makes in the lives of the most needy learners cannot be underestimated.

The programme also provides opportunity to various community based organisations and religious communities to become involved in education by supporting learners and schools in this way.

I especially want to call on local religious communities, such as churches and mosques, to make use of this opportunity to take our hands and work together to extend the programme to help and cover more needy learners with the PSNP.

Enquiries:  Rudi Buys  082 577 6551