PERSONNEL from the Education Ministry have been to Kato Village in Region 8 (Potaro-Siparuni) to investigate the school feeding programme there, and Education Minister, Priya Manickchand has disclosed the contents of their report.

Addressing members of the media on Thursday, in the boardroom of the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD), she said `the visit was made on Thursday, June 13, to receive feedback on the issue of students from the Kato Primary School fetching logs to be used for the preparation of meals under the school feeding programme.
According to her, a community meeting was held at the Kato Primary School and was attended by pupils, teachers, cooks and parents as well as other community members and stakeholders.
This issue was brought to the forefront in a Kaieteur News article dated Wednesday, June 5, 2013 under the headline ‘Hinterland primary students trek miles with logs for “hot meals”.
The article, with supporting photos, and information provided by Alliance For Change (AFC) Councillor, Mohamed Nieem Gafoor suggested that on numerous occasions, the Kato primary school students are forced to carry logs on their backs to be used as firewood to prepare their meals.
Manickchand informed that according to the head cook, the day in question when this incident occurred, 17th April, this was only the second time that children were asked to assist with the fetching of wood for the school kitchen, since the supply of firewood is the responsibility of the community.
She said that according to the report, wood is cut by a villager who has a chainsaw and then transported to the kitchen by the community tractor, but at the time of the incident, the community tractor was not fully functional.
The wood was already cut but required transportation to the school kitchen site, and on that day the cook informed the teacher in charge that the District Education Officer had given permission for the children to fetch the firewood and the teacher in charge complied, the report stated.

POSING FOR PHOTO
According to the report, the children, accompanied by a male teacher left for the firewood which was about a twenty minute walk away from the school, but the councillor requested the children to pose with pieces of firewood that were aback of the school kitchen.
The report added that the councillor was assisted in taking the photographs by two other persons, a pastor from the Mahdia community and one other councillor.
The claim that the children trek for miles three times per week for firewood which is gathered from the forest is completely erroneous, and the provision of firewood by the children as a prerequisite for receiving a meal is completely out of the question, the report stated.
According to the report, the entire community is embarrassed by the incident and has given a commitment that there will not be a recurrence of this or any other similar incident, and Manickchand has said that the Education Ministry has also taken  steps in this regard.
Manickchand stated that all four hinterland Regional Education Officers have been advised to communicate with schools in their respective region that are on the Community-based school feeding programme to let them ensure that children are not engaged in any work-related activity associated with the provision of daily meals by the school kitchen.
Also, the Kato Primary School has been advised to procure two gas bottles with gas to make use of the gas stove in the school kitchen, and if necessary, a second gas stove with bottles could be procured.
This, Manickchand said, can be done since this school reported having ‘savings’ of approximately $ 600,000, which would have accumulated over a period of approximately six years.
School attendance is rarely 100 percent, and the money for meals for the absent children is retained and over time accumulates as ‘savings’, the report stated.
Additionally, Manickchand said that all schools on the feeding programme will be required to complete and sign an adjusted contract form which will give current particulars of the programme at each school and will include commitments of the school and community.
These include prohibiting children from being involved in any feeding programme related activities that may be interpreted as child abuse.
According to her, during the August vacation, all schools will be engaged in a two-day refresher training workshop which will deal with all issues and activities associated with the feeding programme.
Manickchand stated that it is felt that this is an issue that could have been dealt with differently, since the councillor and pastor should have brought this issue to the attention of the Education Ministry as soon as they became aware of it.
She said that the Education Ministry welcomes any information which will help them do their work more efficiently, and they will certainly use this experience to ensure that not only Kato Primary School but all primary schools in the hinterland run the community-based feeding programme in strict accordance with the guidelines governing the programme.