Education Minister condemns use of children to fetch fire wood for Kato School feeding programme

Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand today stated that the Ministry of Education does not recommend or support children being utilised in the provision of meals under the school feeding programme, and such action goes against the rules and regulations that govern the programme.

“We absolutely condemn the use of children to fetch fire wood to use as energy to cook,” she said during a press conference at the ministry’s Brickdam office to respond to the claims published in the June 5 edition of the Kaieteur News. The article depicted pictures of students from the Kato Primary school in Region 8 carrying logs to be used for the hot-meals programme, and spoke about the unhealthy manner in which the food items was being stored.

The Minister explained that the community, in a signed document, agreed there would be times when the parents would be asked to contribute firewood for cooking, however at no time should children be asked to fetch firewood, water or engage in any related activity that is deemed as exploitation.

“At no time should children be called upon to engage in non-curricular activities during school hours,” Minister Manickchand emphasised. She added that during the supervisory and monitoring visits to the school such an issue was never brought to the attention of the Education Ministry.

Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand explaining aspects of Kato’s proposal which was submitted prior to the village joining the community based school feeding programme.

Minister Manickchand pointed out that based on the preliminary investigation, the Ministry made contact with the school’s head teacher – Karen Abrahams who confirmed that the incident in question did occur when another person was left in charge of the school while she (the HM) was on leave. “Seems to us it would have been an isolated incident,” she said.

The Minister indicated that as a follow-up to the preliminary investigation, a team from the Ministry is expected to travel to Region 8 before June 14 so as to ensure that the community based school feeding programme adheres to the rules and regulations which preside over it.

“The Ministry of Education views this as a serious matter and investigations have not only begun here, but across the country to ensure that this is indeed an isolated incident as we believe it is,” Minister Manickchand declared.

With regards to the reports of the inadequacy of the school’s kitchen, the Minister noted that it can be deemed humble, but not insanitary as stated in the Kaieteur News. “That is an indictment to an entire community and it does not reflect our records,” the Minister noted. The community had spent $250,000 to build kitchen. Additionally, the Community Health Workers are expected to visit the kitchen facilities to ensure that the surroundings are in keeping with Ministry of Health Standards.

In recognising the need to meet with the Region 8 Officials, the Minister indicated that the RDC Councillor who made the report is supposed to be fully responsible for the school feeding programme. “He’s expected to be one of the stakeholders…so anything that is going wrong here, he really needs to spank himself first,” she said.

The Minister explained that the school receives a sum of $474,059 on a monthly basis to provide meals for 137 children; contrary to what the Kaieteur News article states. The school has 32 students at the nursery level, while the primary and secondary departments accommodate 88 and 17 pupils, respectively.  While the programme targets primary school children, if there are secondary level students and nursery classes in the school building as in this case, they are also to be served with a meal.

Kato Primary School, sub region one, Region Eight is one of 92 schools in Regions 1, 7, 8, and 9 benefitting from the Community based school feeding programme funded by the Government of Guyana through the Ministry of Education.

Minister Manickchand highlighted that the  funds provided to the school by the government is intended to pay for all food supplies utilised for the preparation of meals for students present at school, stipend for cook, payment for fuel used in the preparation of meals (this includes gas, kerosene oil, coal and/or firewood), purchase of detergents and cleaning agents used in the school’s kitchen, and payment of all expenditures associated with the provision of daily meals and this includes transportation.

Providing meals to Guyana’s children is high of the government’s agenda hence the allocation of more than $1.2B to the programme in 2013.

During the interaction with the media, the Minister explained that for a school to be part of the programme, it would have to submit a proposal signed by key persons such as the Village Chairman/Toshao, Head Teacher and Treasurer. Secondly the school must have had a kitchen that meets the standards of the Ministry of Health (MOH), for instance there must be no thatched roof, have a  wooden or concrete floor, must have an entrance and an exit (to ensure that raw food is not mixed with cooked food) and a source of potable water. The cooks were trained and certified as food handlers by MOH.

At the school level, this programme is managed by a management committee comprising persons from the school and the community, including the headteacher, toshao. This committee’s members were also trained in project management and, with some guidance and supervision from the Department of Education, and the Ministry of Education, they are responsible for the day to day running of the feeding programme.

Initially this programme was funded through the Education For All-Fast Track Initiative, EFA-FTI, of the Ministry of Education but with the conclusion of this programme in December 2012, the Government of Guyana through the Ministry took over the responsibility for the said feeding programme and is providing funds at the same rate as before.