Free meals a major boost for learners

OVER the past three years, the resilience of the country’s education system has been put to the test.

In 2020, the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic, which seriously impacted the school calendar, loomed large.

But the Government was still able to dig deep to protect learners and provide the resources and support — both moral and logistical — to ensure that they did not perilously fall behind their studies, especially those in rural areas.

This was quite a feat, considering the authorities had to use domestic resources, as international financiers, which extended aid to other regional countries, withheld their support because of the two-decade-old sanctions.

Last year, the growing cholera cases were also quite a formidable challenge, but again we prevailed because of the inherent structural integrity and organisational capacity of the local education system, which was able to activate appropriate health protocols that safeguarded the health of schoolchildren while ensuring that learning continued.

As schools open for the second term on Tuesday, we cannot ignore the potential impact of the El Niño-induced drought.

The health and wellbeing of learners, particularly in rural areas, becomes paramount.

A healthy body yields a healthy mind.

We, therefore, commend the Government’s noble initiative to ensure that close to three million learners in public schools get at least one hot meal per day.

Hot and nutritious meals revitalise the body and mind, helping provide the much-needed boost for studies.

Apart from motivating learners, food provisions also help curb dropouts, early marriages and child marriages, as well as drug and substance abuse, among other vices.

However, to ensure the seamless and effective implementation of such an ambitious project, a whole-of-government approach is critical.

But this cannot be left to the Government alone.

Everyone must play their part for it to succeed because it is in the best interests of all.

This is precisely what the chief director for learner welfare and psychological services in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, Ms Kwadzanai Nyanungo, meant in one of our main stories this week, when she indicated that mutually beneficial links among other ministries and stakeholders were required.

“The (Education) Secretary’s Circular No.5 of 2019 points out that, while the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education is responsible for school feeding, the success of the home-grown approach requires mutually beneficial linkages with other ministries and stakeholders,” she said.

Adding: “The home-grown feeding programme requires the active participation of ministries responsible for agriculture, health, social welfare, women affairs, youth and finance.

“It operates in such a way that the demand for agricultural produce is created through the design of nutritious school meals that offer a balanced diet to all learners on every day of the school calendar.”

This is absolutely critical.

There is no doubt, however, that we will overcome the present challenges, as we have done time without number.

It is the dedication and commitment of our civil servants that continue to make our local education system the envy of many, notwithstanding the impact of sanctions over the past 23 years.

Crucially, the increased regularity and growing challenges that we have been facing of late mean we necessarily need to expeditiously and scrupulously implement the Government’s comprehensive plan to build resilience.

This probably informs the US$2 billion that the Government needs for the drought response and mitigation plan, which covers enhanced social protection, direct cash transfers to affected households and school fees cover for vulnerable children, among other sweeping interventions.

We need to start investing now to ensure the resilience of our institutions against future shocks.

Climate change has become a lived reality that is making extreme weather events increasingly regular.

So, we need to prepare accordingly for the future.