Fed Govt, Lagos SUBEB plan pupils’ feeding during closure

By Kofoworola Belo-Osagie

To ensure primary school pupils continue benefiting from the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) despite school closures, the Federal Government and the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) have set up food distribution centres in Lagos State.

Special Assistant to the President on NHGSFP, Mrs. Titilola Adeyemi-Doro said during a meeting at Lagos SUBEB headquarters that parents of Primary 1-3 pupils both in schools already benefitting from the feeding programme and others would get vouchers they would present at the centres to get the food.

She listed the items for each family to include 5kg rice, 5kg beans, 500ML of vegetable oil, 750ml of palm oil, 500mg of salt, half crate of egg with tomato paste.

At the meeting held with the Lagos SUBEB Chairman, Wahab Alawiye-King, Mrs. Adeyemi-Doro urged leaders of School-Based Management Committees (SBMC), Education Secretaries to own the project and ensure its success.

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In his remarks, Alawiye-King told the participants to ensure that the items get to the intended persons already captured under the programme.

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“We have adopted the protocols and modalities that would be used in distributing the palliatives, that is why we are here today to ensure that we get it right so that the stakeholders at the event can go back to their respective domain and seek the buy-in of the larger public,” he said.

Speaking on behalf of the SBMC, Baale of Marine Beach and Central Chairman of Apapa and Apapa-Iganmu LCDA SBMC, Dr. Joseph Ogunmola assured both the Federal and State Government of necessary support to make the programme succeed.

He said: “We would work assiduously to ensure the programne succeeds as Schools-Based Management Committees and Parent Forum in conjunction with other relevant stakeholders. I urge parents to cooperate with the officials that would be coming to distribute the palliatives so that the intention would not be jeopardised.”

On his part, Chairman of the Conference of Education Secretaries in Lagos State, Comrade Amodu Hakeem Abolore, said since pupils have to study at home this period, supporting their parents who may have been financially incapacitated by the lockdown would greatly assist in helping them feed their wards.