By Lola Seriki- Idahosa,Kaduna
Kaduna State Government has announced that it will introduce a harmonized feeding system for all post primary students in boarding schools in order to monitor and control the quality of the menu served.
The State Commissioner for Education, Dr Shehu Usman, disclosed this while speaking to the media in Kaduna on Wednesday.
Dr Usman said in the new feeding arrangement, same meal will be served to students as breakfast, lunch and dinner, explaining that “if students in the state are to be served rice as lunch, every boarding school under the control of the state will serve rice for lunch and it is only in doing that the inspectors will be able to identify which school (serves) rice that is below standard.
“We introduced this formula because of report of poor meals being served to students which sometimes has led to health hazard. The Governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, released some money to a committee that will carry out the harmonization of the feeding system. They will prepare menu list for every term and schools must strictly adhere to the list.
“We are not hiding the fact that Kaduna State education system is one of the most neglected aspects in the 16 years of PDP administration in the state, but we have to start from somewhere and because change is all about seeing result, we want to start by letting our students eat the best food that is available.
“The committee will also supervise suppliers of the foodstuffs and any one that is found wanting will be disengaged because we don’t want them to supply food that you cannot give to your wards in the homes to our students,” he said.
The commissioner also confirmed that money has been released to state scholarship board for payment of students of the state studying in various tertiary institutions in the state.
He, however, explained that before the payment is effected, the Ministry Of Education, in conjunction with the scholarship board, will conduct a thorough biometric verification of students.
“With this biometric verification, which is going to be very simple and not tedious for our students, we will be able to identify those who are actually students from Kaduna state, so that they get what is due to them and we will also go after people who are manipulating the system to collect scholarship whereas they have already graduated from tertiary institutions.
“We are also working with private school owners in the state in order to verify the private schools and know those of them who are eligible to operate and if the area they are operating are good for academic purposes,” he explained.
