By Machela Osagboro
The National School Meals Programme (NSMP) will continue to provide meals for vulnerable primary school students during the current school closure.
“The National School Meals Programme is making provisions to ensure that the most vulnerable students in all our primary schools who are accustomed to receiving school meals, will receive school meals,” Director of Education, Clare Browne told Observer.
Minister of Education Michael Browne added that the Ministry of Education is fine-tuning the delivery processes to ensure that the meals reach the students.
“The priority for National School Meals now is doing the assessment so that they can deliver meals to students that are the most vulnerable,” he said.
He also appealed to parents who may not be in the best financial situation but can provide for their children to continue to do so, as the ministry is trying to reach, “those households who are vulnerable”.
“We have an internal list and now we are just doing triangulations that we have covered as many persons as possible and we want to make it a surgical operation to be able to deliver those meals,” he said.
Meantime, the Director of Education urged parents to ensure that children remain indoors to reduce their chances of exposure to the coronavirus after one case was confirmed on Friday.
“We are appealing to parents to ensure that provisions are made to remain at home or wherever they are putting them, but not on our streets,” Clare Browne said yesterday.
The director also assured the public that educational facilities will not be closed to learning during the break, because the teachers are trained to use the various e-platforms and will be able to prepare lessons and instruct students remotely.
Secondary school students will continue to be tutored through the use of e-books, while those who do not have internet at home will be receiving learning packages from their teachers.
Meanwhile, some primary schools, to include Jennings Primary, have already advised parents to collect their children’s learning packages between 9am and noon today.
