By Kondanani Chilimunthaka
Madalitso Kambawuwa Wirima who is Minister of Education has described the partnership between Malawi Government and Mary’s Meals as a key to improved primary school education in the country.
Wirima made the remarks on Tuesday January, 23,2024 in Kasungu during the visit by the Chief Programmes Officer for Mary’s Meals Graeme Little and the delegation to Chithiba Primary School.
Speaking during the tour, Wirima said apart from providing feed for primary school learners, the programme is also improving farmers economic status as its model promotes procurement of corn soy blend produced locally, adding that the programme has among others achieved improvement in enrollment,attendance, and reduced school dropouts.
“Today is a great day as the Government and Mary’s Meals have come to this school to support the School Feeding Programme.
“School Feeding is one of the priority programs for contributing to attainment of educational outcomes as well as improving health and nutrition status of our learners. This is reflected in the National Education Sector Plan (NESP),” said Wirima.
The deputy minister further said the School Feeding Programme in Malawi is very important as it is one of the priorities that support to achieve the First Educational Policy Objective, of increasing access to equitable education in primary schools.
However, Wirima admitted that Malawi as a country continues to face challenges in learners attendance and dropouts, especially in those schools where the feeding program is not being implemented.
But she was quick to say Malawi Government is committed to continue working with all its partners to mobilize more support to scale-up the program to all public primary schools across the country.
Currently, there are 931 primary schools in 24 districts in the country where the government is implementing the School Feeding Programme with support from Mary’s Meals, and the visit by Little comes a few weeks after the opening of the second term in schools.
