Baksh reports positive impact of school feeding programme
MINISTER of Education, Mr. Shaik Baksh said, yesterday, that the $ 1.2 billion School Feeding Programme (SFP), to alleviate the hunger of poor children in the hinterland and on the coastland, has been having a positive impact on their attendance and performance.
Speaking at a Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) prize-giving ceremony for a competition on the signing of a petition to end hunger, at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD), on Battery Road, Kingston, Georgetown, he said the findings were the result of a recent study conducted by the World Bank.
Baksh said the Government is aware of the difficulties of undernourished children to learn academically and alluded to initiatives such as the SFP, the US$6M International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD funded Rural Enterprise and Development Project (READ), the US$21.9M Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Agricultural Export Diversification Programme, the US$20M Agriculture Support Services Project (ASSP) and the ‘Grow More’ campaign.
He said the undertakings represent the political will to address the problem of hunger and food security in Guyana.
READ aims to strengthen intermediary service providers, institutions through which  services add value to production and marketing systems and improve rural welfare, while the ASSP targets drainage and irrigation, farmers education, delegation of authority to Water Users Associations and construction of rice seed facilities.
Baksh said the ministry of education has supported the petition as it is of the view that the importance of agriculture and its role in addressing food security has to be instilled in students at all levels of the school system.
Several means
He said that has to be done through several means, including the revival of gardens at all schools.
In that context, Baksh said progress is also being made and, for the first time, four agriculture specialists have been attached to his ministry, full time, three of whom have been provided by the ministry of agriculture.
The Minister reported, too, that the number of candidates sitting the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations has been steadily increasing, as well as their pass rate.
Additionally, the Secondary Competency Certificate Programme (SCCP) makes provision for students who are not desirous of pursuing the academic subjects to enter one of a range of technical fields, agriculture among them, he said.
According to Baksh, his ministry is moving in the right direction with the promotion of  discipline in the school system but maintained there is need for  faster acceleration of the programmes.
He mentioned, too, that the University of Guyana (UG) should be offering a Master’s programme in agriculture, as research is not only necessary to further modernise the local sector but also to produce the expertise needed.Baksh noted   that Guyana has taken the leadership role on agriculture in the region, with President Bharrat Jagdeo holding that portfolio in CARICOM and putting forward the Jagdeo Initiative, a strategy paper which outlines the way forward.
The minister insisted that Guyana has been making significant strides in agriculture, noting that, when other nations were struggling to feed their people during the food and global financial and economic crises, this country has maintained food security.
He called on the populace to revive kitchen gardens, consume local produce and for farmers to increase production, as opportunities abound for them to tap into the CARICOM US$3.5 billion annual food import bill.
Ministry of Agriculture Trade Specialist, Mr. Johan David lauded the schools that participated in the competition, pointing out that the youths will be the movers and shakers in the sector and more of them have to be involved for the future to be secure.
Collective action
He said the issue of hunger is everybody’s business and all must join the fight, not only through talk but collective action to arrest the problem which affects mostly women and children.
FAO Resident Representative, Dr. Lystra Fletcher- Paul said the competition was part of a global programme to raise awareness of the some one billion people who suffer from hunger every day.
She said the fight against hunger does not end with the petition as the next step is to do something about the issue.
Fletcher-Paul said 6,000 Guyanese joined the petition, 4,500 of whom are students and she used the opportunity to commend the ministry of agriculture on its tremendous effort to advance the pursuit in Guyana and Minister Baksh for his role in getting more schools involved in the field.
She, too, appealed to youths to get involved in agriculture and called for an exchange of information on related tools and produce as gifts, particularly during the Christmas season.
Several schools throughout the country which participated in the competition were presented with certificates and trophies.