The Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) will receive Rwf5bn in additional funding to be able to sustain the school feeding programme in schools. The new funding is part of the proposed revised budget for the fiscal year 2021-22 which was presented to parliament last week. Speaking to The New Times, MP Omar Munyaneza, Chairperson of the Committee on National Budget and Patrimony said that this is in line with keeping this initiative going to ensure no child is locked out of school because their parents cannot afford a meal. “According to this newly-revised budget, the given amount is a top-up to the initial budget that had been allocated towards this programme during the initial budget,” he said, referring to the budget for the same year that was passed mid-last year. He added that government, through the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MINECOFIN) will keep on injecting money into this project whenever it will be necessary. Commenting on some concerns raised around this programme such as parents who are unable to afford their contributions among others issues, Munyaneza said that government has rolled out an assessment exercise which is expected to reveal the sufficient amount needed per student depending on the area in order to solve this issue. Currently, the government spends Rwf56 every day on a student, which is supplemented by the Rwf94 contribution of the parent as support to each student’s feeding while at school. The school feeding programme was extended to pre-primary, primary, and secondary school children at the beginning of last year’s academic year. ‘Hard to contribute’ Jeanne d’Arc Abamukunda, the headmistress of Groupe Scolaire Munyunze in Ruhango District said that the parent’s contributions are still a big challenge while the government has been consistent in disbursing its contribution. “We feed all students but at some point, it requires extra funding to be able to feed them for the entire term and we have to request parents to contribute – either money or in kind – to cover their contributions,” she said, adding that some can even work part time at school or bring foodstuffs. She added that for instance in her school, out of 1,088 students only around 800 can afford to contribute either cash or in kind. Bosco Muhire, a father of two children, attributes the lack of support from parents to financial constraints. “I have to contribute Rwf12,000 per term for each of my children as a parent, and yet I am in the first division of Ubudehe. This makes it hard for me to afford money every term for my children to be able to eat at school,” he said. ‘Plan for increase’ Commenting on the issue, the Ministry of Education said that government will continue increasing the contribution towards the programme according to the availability of budget. “Since the scale-up of the school feeding programme, the governments contribution has increased from Rwf8 billion to around 54 billion (only on food). There are plans to increase depending on budget availability,” said Rose Baguma, the Director-General in charge of policy analysis at the ministry. She added that in the previous additional budget was used to scale up school feeding to cover all levels of basic education.
