Primary School Feeding Program Continues to Cut Drop-Out Rate

Primary School Feeding Program Continues to Cut Drop-Out Rate

The Ministry of Education will continue with its school feeding programme for primary school children to reduce the drop-out rate.

Spokesman Ros Soveacha said the ministry, together with partner organisations, has decided to strengthen the continuation of the school-based food programme for students in the provinces in their effort to promote education among children and increase enrolment.

The reason behind the continued implementation, he added, was because they notice high incidences of school dropouts at the primary level.

As a way forward from this year onwards, Soveacha said the ministry is looking into the possibility of raising funds for the construction of kitchens, student cafeterias, and handwashing facilities in primary schools.

“We will continue cooperating with the World Food Programme executive committee and National Council for Social Protection as well as relevant partners in strengthening the implementation of the school feeding programme,” he added.

As to the programme, he said, the students’ breakfast includes vegetables, fish, meat, eggs and rice, which are locally produced.

“The ministry will continue to enhance the capacity of the target groups through training and monitoring on the implementation of the programme to provide food at the target schools using community-based agriculture,” said Soveacha

The school feeding programme was implemented in Cambodia in 1999, starting with 64 schools with 37,500 students and gradually expanded to what it is today with the support of the World Food Programme together with the Ministry of Education.

From 205 schools, the ministry is targeting to expand the feeding programme to 290 schools of which 85 schools are located in Siem Reap, Oddar Meanchey and Kampong Speu provinces. The feeding programme for these schools will be transferred from the World Food Programme in 2022 to the Ministry of Education under the budget of the government.

According to the World Food Programme, 15 percent of the 16 million population in Cambodia are undernourished while 32 percent of children under five-years-old are stunted. This is due to a combination of factors: the food children are eating are not enough and it does not contain the nutrients they need to grow and develop.