Walking/Transport Distance to School
5.4 Analysis and interpretation of the potential impact of the school feeding programme in Magog Primary School
At a quite simple level the school feeding programme is held due to a belief in a reduction of deaths by malnutrition and an overall improvement of children's health by increasing body weights and providing a more balanced diet (Branca and Ferrari, 2002). This in turn leads to an increase in vigour and concentration levels which are relevant to the educational question (Branca and Ferrari, 2002). It was found from the focus group interviews that both learner and teacher respondents believe that the school feeding programme has the potential of improving nutrition, school attendance, enrolment, concentration and educational outcomes.
On the question of whether the school feeding programme is supporting learner nutrition and health, both learner and teacher respondents believe that the programme has helped and is helping them and therefore needs to be continued. These were some of the reasons given: The learners believe that the provision of food gives them the energy to go through their daily academic tasks. They do not feel tired during class. One learner respondent stated, “I become strong when I eat the food”. As said by another learner respondent, “I want the government to give us food on Saturdays and Sundays”. We can thus argue that the energy provided by the school feeding programme helps learners to be more active and thus makes them more conducive to better concentration and learning. To emphasise this point, the Table below shows the number of teacher respondents who believed that school feeding improves learner nutritional levels and health and, by extension, improves learning in class.
Table 5.3: Teacher responses to whether school feeding potentially impacts on learner nutrition and health
Responses Yes No Total
Number of teacher respondents 9 - 9
Percentage of teacher respondents 100% - 100%
Table 5.3 above indicates that 100% of teacher respondents believe that the provision of food at school helps to give learners the energy to work at school and subsequently improves their
health. This confirms the study by Hall et al. (2008) that school feeding improves the nutrition and health of children.
The teacher respondents believe that the improvement of nutrition of children translates into school enrolment and attendance and learner concentration in the class. Notwithstanding the fact that there are related factors, they stated categorically that the school feeding programme has potentially influenced the enrolment of Magog Primary School over the years. According to the school principal, children want to be enrolled in the school because they think it is a place where they can supplement the food given to them at home. Learners now come to school on time with fewer cases of absenteeism. According to the teacher respondents, communication between educators and learners improves throughout the day because learners are energised after the feeding. The Table below indicates that the learner and teacher respondents support this claim that the school feeding programme relates significantly to enrolment and attendance.
Table 5.4: Teacher and learner responses to whether school feeding potentially impact on learner enrolment and attendance
Responses to enrolment and attendance Yes No Total
Number of teacher respondents 8 1 9
Percentage of teacher respondents 89% 11% 100%
Number of learner respondents 99 13 112
Percentage of learner respondents 88% 22% 100%
With reference to the impact of school feeding at Magog Primary in Table 5.4 above, 89% and 88% of teacher and learner respondents respectively believe that children come to school because they are motivated by the provision of food, as compared to 11% of teacher and 22% of learner respondents who were of the view that children come to school not on the basis of the provision of food. This finding supports the view of Kazianga et al. (2009) that school feeding increases enrolment and attendance. It is difficult for learners with empty stomachs to concentrate on the process of teaching and learning as perceived by the learner and teacher
respondents. The Table below shows how teachers and learner respondents perceived learner concentration in class following the introduction of the feeding programme.
Table 5.5: Teachers and learner responses to whether school feeding potentially impact on learner concentration
Responses to learner concentration Yes No Total
Number of teacher respondents 9 - 9
Percentage of teacher respondents 100% - 100%
Number of learner respondents 85 27 112
Percentage of learner respondents 76% 24% 100%
Consistent with the views of Grantham-McGregor (2005), Table 5.5 above indicates that all the teacher respondents including 76% of the learner respondents were of the opinion that learners are able to concentrate properly when they are provided with food. One teacher respondent said, “It helps us to teach without distractions because children concentrate after being fed”. The respondents also believe that increase in enrolment, attendance and proper concentration leads ultimately to improving learning outcomes. The Table below shows the number of learner and teacher respondents who believe that the provision of food at Magog Primary School improves learner outcomes.
Table 5.6: Teacher and learner responses to whether school feeding potentially impact on learner achievements
Responses Yes No Total
Number of teacher respondents 9 - 9
Percentage of teacher respondents 100% - 100%
Number of learner respondents 100 12 112
Percentage of learner respondents 89% 11% 100%
Table 5.6 shows that, all teacher respondents, and 89% of learner respondents at Magog Primary believe that the provision of food at school potentially helps to improve their learning outcomes.
As one learner respondent said, “I come to school almost every school day and I am able to listen to my teacher after the food”. All the teacher respondents also confirmed that the feeding programme improves the learning outcomes of these learners because they can concentrate properly after the feeding. This is in line with the assertion of Russell and Nobuntu (2005) that when food is provided to children at school, their educational outcomes are improved.
The principal of Magog Primary School stated that there are other factors, such as increase in population and the desire for parents to send their children to school, which contributed to the increased enrolment. However, the principal alluded to the fact that the school feeding programme plays a major role in the form of an incentive for the children to be enrolled at the school. The principal said that enrolment was between 180 and 230 before the introduction of the feeding programme in 2005 with daily absenteeism hovering around 6%. This situation changed rapidly with the introduction of the feeding programme in 2006 with a rise in enrolment to the capacity of the school which is between 350 and 360 every year. This increase was evident after the introduction of the programme with a minimal rate of absenteeism or sometimes no absenteeism at all. The figure below shows the enrolment figures of Magog Primary School from 2005 to 2011.
Figure 5.3: Enrolment figures of Magog Primary School from 2005 to 2011
Figure 5.3 above shows an increase in enrolment in Magog Primary school. It shows the enrolment of 189 in 2005, which rose to 312 learners in 2006 when the school feeding programme was introduced to 359 learners in 2011. Further, the Principal of Magog Primary
189 312 320 348 350 350 359 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 E n ro lm e n t fi g u re s Year
attested to the fact that, among other factors such good leadership, infrastructure and dedicated teachers; she is of the view that the school feeding potentially improves cognitive development thereby increasing the pass rate of the school. She confirmed that before 2006 the average pass rate of the school was around 38%. The pass rate then shot up to between 68 to 75% after the introduction of the school feeding programme in 2006. The figure below shows the average percentage pass rate of Magog Primary School from 2005 to 2011.
Figure 5.4: Average percentage pass rate from 2005-2011
Figure 5.4 above show an increase in the pass rate of learners in the Magog Primary School from 38% in 2005 before the inception of the school feeding programme to 54% in 2006 when the programme was introduced. The pass rate steadily increased to 89% in 2011.This shows an average increase of 67% from the inception of the programme to 2011. It is important to mention that while there could be other contributing factors to improving learner development, it is probable that the school feeding made a significant contribution to this outcome. The school feeding programme has potentially played a major role in the development of Magog Primary School in general and specifically in terms of learner development. These numerous achievements were not arrived at without bottlenecks which are discussed in the following section. 38 54 66 69 72 81 89 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011