Member of Parliament for Balaka
West, Patricia Shanil Dzimbiri has sent an appeal to Government to consider
introducing school meal programme in her constituency as food shortage
affecting most families in the area brings panic of school drop outs and
absenteeism among pupils.
Over, 6 million Malawians will
again this year face food shortage as droughts and floods in most parts of the
country have affected yield of maize which is a staple food situation. The
situation is likely to have a huge negative impact on education of children
from most vulnerable poor families that have no food because children will be
hungry to go to school.
Speaking in the National Assembly
on Wednesday, Honorable Shanil Dzimbiri made the plea to Government that her
area needs school Feeding Programe to keep children in school.
She said for two consecutive
years, her area has been badly hit by floods and drought rendering more
families going without food due to low harvest.
Honorable Shanil fears that most
learners will drop out of school as they will focus on fetching food than
education and urged Government to begin providing porridge when school begins.
“I stressed on the point of
school feeding programe due to the hunger in my constituency” said Hon Shanil
Dzimbiri later in an interview, and she stressed “My constituency has been
badly affected, because it is two consecutive years, last year we had floods
and people did not harvest enough and this year we had drought so people
haven’t harvested anything.”
She then said “So I feel very
strongly that if Government introduce this school feeding programe it means so
many children will be enticed to go to school looking forward to eat something
from school and at the end of the day they will learn looking. So, they will be
enticed to go to school looking at the situation in their homes.”
The Balaka West legislator
indicated that areas including T/A Chamnthunya, Sub T/A Phalula and Sr. Chief
Nsamala are some of the most affected villages.
She said in total, there are 37
primary schools but almost half of these schools do not have school feeding
programe. She noted that the school feeding programme mostly porridge being
provided in other schools has shown that it is an effective tool to encourage
pupils to continue with their education regardless of hunger situation in their
homes as such schools continue to register low absenteeism’s and drop outs when
compared to schools that do not offer school meals.
“Interesting thing is that pupils
who stay close to the schools that do not offer school meals they prefer to go
to far schools that offer porridge. They pass schools closer to them and goes
far distances to find schools that are offering school meals.” She noted
“So, I strongly feel that it can
work wonders.” She added who said she would be happy if Government comes to her
rescue in September when new school session begins “I will be very happy and it
will register tremendous figure of students going to school, I bet you.”
Among other things that Honorable
Shanil Dzimbiri also highlighted in the National Assembly when contributing to
the debate on the 2016/17 National Budget motion, was on lack of secondary
schools to reduce school dropouts among girls.
She said the existing Community
Day Secondary Schools are much far apart, preventing a girl child to go to
school because of long distances.
“We have three Community Day
Secondary Schools which are far apart and prohibits a girl child to have a
desire to go to school because of long distances” she said urging Government to
ensure that there are more secondary schools in her area that are closer to
encourage girls to go to school
“Right now they end up getting
married quickly, so there is nothing to entice them. So if the school is nearby
I feel that the girl child will remain in school.” She emphasized while
indicating that areas of Group village Chiyembekezo and Mkomwa needs Community
Day Secondary Schools and those communities have already mobilized resources including
bricks and sand, redden themselves to help Government once it consider helping
them with secondary school