EVERY MORNING, hundreds of children leave their homes to school where they are expected to spend several hours attending classes. But educators, particularly those in developing countries, struggle with a serious hurdle: teaching hungry students. 

International charity Save the Children said in the "Food for Thought” report released last week that a-quarter of the world’s children are at risk of underperforming at school because of chronic malnutrition. 

Earlier, the World Food Programme, in its 2013 "State of School Feeding Worldwide” report, warned that thousands of children still lacked enough and nutrient-rich food to allow them study in the most favourable environment. 

This culminated in high rates of school dropouts, irregular attendances, exaggerated lateness and poor performances in schools, it said. 

The introduction of school feeding programmes, targeting mainly pre-primary and primary school children in hunger-stricken areas, came to address these issues. 

For the last 10 years, Mugombwa Primary School in Nyamagabe District benefited from a WFP-funded scheme to provide students with free lunch at school daily.  

The school, located in the rural Cyanika Sector of Nyamagabe District, is just one of the about 300 countrywide that have benefited from the same scheme since 2002. It is also one of the few remaining schools under the sponsorship, which today targets select schools in Nyaruguru and Nyamagabe districts. 

Every day, the more than 1,000 Mugombwa students are served with free meals–often a dish of maize bread ( , as it is locally known) with fried peas. 

Alvera Mukarubayiza, the head teacher, said the scheme has been critical in maintaining students in class. 

"Before, the school dropout rate, absenteeism and late coming were high, but since the school feeding programme began, these cases have drastically reduced,” Mukarubayiza, who has served in the education sector since 1976, said.

She said some parents used to force their children out of schools. In other cases, children were employed as house-helps.

"It was difficult for students to study on empty stomachs, so they preferred small chores which helped them gain little money to survive over their education,” Mukarubayiza said. 

She said the school feeding programme has not only helped improve students’ performance, but also made them healthier. 

"A hungry child lacks concentration. But when they are satisfied, their performance improves,” Mukarubayiza said. "Malnutrition among school children has also been stamped out.” 

Theophile Mutimura, a Primary Six teacher at the same school, said ‘satisfied’ students are able to memorise, learn and understand without difficulties. 

"It is a bit complicated to teach a student who is dozing because of hunger,” Mutimura said. "Teaching and learning become easier when students are satisfied.”

Parents, pupils speak out 

For Phenias Dusengimana, a P6 pupil, the school feeding programme came as a boost to his class performance. He says whenever he went back home for lunch, he was always late to return to school and that affected his studies. 

"With this programme, it means you have food and time for respite so when you go back in class, you feel well and you concentrate on studies,” Dusengimana said. 

Valerie Uwimana, 39, a resident of Buhiga Village in Cyanika Sector, said the programme relieved her from the pressure of preparing lunch for her three school-going children. 

"It’s not that I fear my responsibilities as a parent, but serving them [students] meals at school allows them to properly manage their time and dedicate much of their time to studies rather than spending hours to and fro school during lunch hours,” she said. 

"It also allows me to concentrate on other things so as to be more productive, raise my income and obviously improve my social status.”

Silas Rwakayiro, 50, also a parent, said: "It is rare for children to drop out nowadays. The school meals have improved their love for education and that plays a big role in the way they perform academically.” 

Sustainable feeding

WFP has called on countries to establish strong mechanisms to recover costs involved in the programme and, thus, guarantee its sustainability.  

According to education officials, plans are underway to have the school feeding programme introduced in all schools across the country but, he noted, the process will depend on the availability of funds to support it. 

The Director-General of Education Planning in the Ministry of Education, Dr Erasme Rwanamiza, said although there is no quantified data to measure its impact, school feeding was critical in improving punctuality and attendance at school, the decrease of diseases related to malnutrition as well as strengthening ties and relationships among students. 

Dr Rwanamiza said to guarantee the programme’s sustainability, it is imperative that parents get involved. The government plans to spend more than Rwf5 billion to boost the school feeding programme in the next fiscal year.