…Minister Henry in surprise visit, eats breakfast with students

GOVERNMENT has increased the allocation for a meal at the President’s College by $1000 bringing it to $1800 and Minister of Education, Dr. Nicolette Henry on Thursday paid a surprise visit to the school where she had breakfast with the students.

Minister Henry joined the children to indulge in a meal of homemade bread, sausage, tea and fruits. During her two-hour visit at the institution, Dr. Henry used the opportunity to interface with the students to get an understanding of what are some issues affecting them and how they can be addressed. The education minister also addressed the school’s population and said that she felt privileged to be having breakfast with them.

Additionally, to loud applause, Dr. Henry announced that the budgetary allocation for dietary needs of the school has been increased significantly in the 2019 budget. “It is important to this government that our children are given healthy meals, and that is why we will continue to improve in this area,” a release from Minister Henry’s ministry said.

Further, the education minister said that it is known that if children have healthy meals, there is every likelihood that they will be better positioned to learn. It is for this reason, according to Dr. Henry, that the Ministry of Education will continue to invest in the school feeding programme. Added to the opportunity for increased learning, Minister Henry said that this programme also improves attendance, which translates into more children being exposed to formal education.

During her defence of the MoE’s budgetary allocation for 2019 in the Committee of Supply, Minister Henry said that the school feeding and hot meal programmes will be significantly improved. She also said that the school feeding programme will also have a greater focus to cater to the country’s most disadvantaged children. It was during that presentation that Dr. Henry informed that special emphasis will be given to the children of sugar workers since she believes they are a part of this group that should benefit from this intervention.

The Ministry of Education’s school feeding and hot meal programmes are currently ongoing in the eleven educational districts across the country. Thousands of children are benefitting daily from this programme and the MoE continues to look at avenues to improve this aspect of education delivery.