NASSAU, Bahamas — More than 2,000 students will receive free meals with the expansion of the National School Breakfast Pilot Programme in five more schools, according to Education Minister Glenys Hanna-Martin, The Nassau Guardian reported on Friday, April 5, 2024, in an article written by Jade Russell.
The programme has been expanded to five schools in New Providence: CW Sawyer Primary School, Stephen Dillet Primary School, Woodcock Primary School, Yellow Elder Primary School, and E P Roberts Primary School.
On Monday, 2,300 students within these schools will receive free breakfast three days a week until the end of the academic year.
In October 2023, the $1million National Breakfast School programme was launched in New Providence with four primary schools and expanded to four Family Island primary schools in November 2023. Mrs Hanna-Martin said participant schools in New Providence student attendance increased by 3.9 per cent during the initial months of the programme. Family Island schools recorded an increase of 7.2 per cent in attendance, she said.
At a press conference at the Ministry of Education on Friday, the education minister underscored the breakfast programme is one of the strategies used to promote student attendance and punctuality. Truancy or low attendance has been identified as a major problem impacting the education system. Mrs Hanna–Martin said too often students are seen wandering around on the streets in the morning when they should be in school. While the attendance rate has increased through the use of officers and the national school attendance hotline, she said more improvement is still needed.
They’re about 3,000 students in the system in the public-school system that had punctuality challenges,” she said. “What we found is that this breakfast program has assisted in getting children to the schools earlier.”
The impact of the breakfast programme is more than just a meal, the minister emphasised. She said students having breakfast together helps them to bond with each other and build social skills.
She added that she’s an advocate for the programme to be universal and expand to junior and senior high schools. However, she said there needs to be funding for it to be expanded.
“We have to see what kind of modalities can be struck whether its public, private, however, so that we’re able to deliver breakfast in the morning.”
More Family Island schools are expected to be added to the programme.
#In November 2023, criticisms were leveled at government’s national breakfast programme on social media after images of some of the meals were circulated – with some comparing it to “jail food.” The programme’s coordinator Benita Adderley at the Office of the Prime Minister in October 2023 said the meals were nutritious and healthy.
See complete article in The Tribune at http://www.tribune242.com/news/2024/apr/05/school-breakfast-programme-expanded-five-more-scho/
