• The school feeding programme started this year in all nine and 12 years basic education to boost the quality of education.
  • Parents are required to pay between Rwf4,000 and Rwf6,000 per week for children’s meal at school.
  • There are 1,037 schools offering the nine and 12 years basic education system across the country, including 10 private and 1,027 public ones.

Children from poor families are spending up to 10 hours in school without a meal, which may negatively affect their academic performance.

They are also discriminated against by school administrators as they are denied lunch for failing to pay for their meals.

Some school administrators have gone ahead to ban pupils — even those from nearby — from going home for lunch, saying it wastes study time.
This came out in a mini survey carried out by Rwanda Today in different schools.

The school feeding programme started this year in all nine and 12 years basic education to boost the quality of education.

This was after experts found that studying on an empty stomach was adversely affecting academic standards as pupils lose concentration in the afternoon.

With the introduction of compulsory meals in schools, the school closing time was extended from 2pm to 4.30pm. This means pupils who cannot afford meals are spending more hours at school hungry.

Parents are required to pay between Rwf4,000 and Rwf6,000 per week for children’s meal at school,Rwanda Today established.

The question many poor parents are asking is, if the education system aims at giving poor quality education, why do schools charge for meals?

Esther Mukamana is among parents who would like their children to enjoy the school food but she cannot afford it.

She said her children endure hunger pangs under a tree during lunch as their fellow pupils eat.

“These schools were built for poor parents who do not have the capacity to take their children to the boarding schools,” Ms Mukamana said. “This charge is an additional burden for us.”

She urged government to foot the food bill, saying there are many needy families in the country with schoolgoing children.

“The government should offer full support to pupils from poor families so that they cab get an education,’ she said. “It is not proper for one child to study when hungry while the other is satisfied.

“The level of concentration in studies differs.”

There are 1,037 schools offering the nine and 12 years basic education system across the country, including 10 private and 1,027 public ones.

Faustin Rutembeza, the headmaster of Groupe Scholaire Chahafi, in Kigali City, said he has many students who do not take lunch at school for their failure to raise the contribution.

“Initially, we allowed all students to share what has been found so that none would be yawning in class as the rest studied,” Mr Rutembeza said.

“Unfortunately, their parents did not show commitment in reimbursing what the school spent on the children.

“Out of the 737 children, only 300 have fully paid launch fees. Until now, some parents do not understand the importance of feeding their children at school but we are still sensitising them.”

One teacher from Groupe Scolaire Rwisirabo told Rwanda Today that, out of more than 1,000 students there, only 200 are paid up.

Lose concentration

A student at Groupe Scholaire Cyahafi who claimed to be among the thousands of children in Rwanda who do not eat at school said: “We live near the school but are not allowed to go home for lunch.

“This makes us to lose concentration in the afternoon.

“When our classmates are having lunch, we stay in the classrooms talking while others lie in the school garden waiting for those who are having lunch to finish.”

Some Ministry of Education officials that we spoke to did not come out openly with solutions to address the problem. Instead, they were of the opinion that local authorities should identify needy families and foot the cost of school meals.

The officials also insisted that feeding a child at school was the responsibility of parents.

However, the deputy director-general in charge of Quality and Standards at the Rwanda Education Board (REB), Janvier Gasana, said school authorities had no right to prevent students from studying or sending them home due to the lack of lunch fees.