Executive Director of the Institute of Education Studies, Dr. Peter Anti, has urged government to go back to the school feeding programme’s policy document to implement the policy as enshrined therein.

According to him, the government’s deviation from the principles of implementation of the programme as contained in the policy document is a key contributor to the challenges that have beset the school feeding programme.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express, he stated that the issue of funding for the programme has been outlined in the policy framework and has urged government to look at it and implement it just as stated.

“Go back to the policy document; implement the policy as enshrined in the policy document and that is the first angle to look at. Because in the policy document it is clearly stated the various sources of funding for the policy. I think there are about five different policies that the document speaks about; the government is one, I think the private sector, fundraising by the school feeding secretariat [etc.] …so go back to the policy document and look at it,” he said.

He also added that the increasingly politicisation of the programme is not in tangent with the conceptual framework of the policy.

According to Dr. Anti, making the school feeding programme another avenue to reward party faithful undermines the quality of service of the programme as professionalism is sacrificed for political patronage.

“Because if you’re recruiting people based on their political affiliation, you throw away professionalism. And that is why they are giving the children this kind of food, and that is why they cannot complain forcefully the amount of money that they’re being paid because you’re recruiting them based on political patronage.

“So if you’re recruiting them based on professionalism, then they can insist that they’re paid an amount that will enable them deliver the services that they’re supposed to deliver, then you can also do the quality assurance that you need to do to ensure that they are providing the needed food for the kids.

“But we’re doing this as a form of political party, another group within the political party, so that the party comes to power and they have their women organisers, and these are facts on the ground, they have their women organisers taking charge of the school feeding programme. So you don’t have any professionalism in that sector.

“And because you don’t have that, they cannot push for the amount of money that they need to be able to deliver the service that they have to deliver. So the principle is go back to the policy document, look at what you said you would do in terms of the implementation, in terms of the principles, in terms of your conceptualization of the policy and then make sure you’re implementing it solely to suit that and if we do that I think we’ll be able to solve this problem,” he said.