School feeding programme being expanded
FIFTY-SIX high and 189 primary schools where students have been “underperforming” are to benefit from an expanded school feeding arrangement.
Education Minister Senator Dana Morris Dixon, appearing before the Standing Finance Committee of Parliament which is examining the 2025/2026 Estimates of Expenditure at Gordon House in downtown Kingston, on Friday said the schools were identified in a recent assessment.
“One of the things we have done recently is to identify all of the schools that are not performing well, and there are 56 high schools that are performing below where we need them to perform. There are 189 primary schools who are performing below where we want them to be. Invariably, a lot of these schools have students who are in lower socio-economic groups and who have some level of poverty, so what we have said in terms of relooking at this budget, a commitment of ours is to ensure that in those schools breakfast is also provided,” she told the committee.
Morris Dixon said the schools, which currently are provided with lunches, will also now be provided with breakfasts.
“We have seen where a number of our children are coming to school without any breakfast. We have seen where, for those schools that provide lunch and they are on PATH [Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education], that’s the only meal they have, and we had to be very realistic as a ministry, and we’ve looked at that and we recognised we have to do better,” she said.
The education minister, who was responding to questions from the Opposition’s Angela Brown Burke as to why allocations for grants, contributions and subsidies had “taken a hit”. said the ministry intends to reallocate more funds towards its school feeding programme by shaving expenditure from some other areas.
In the current budget, $129.3 million has been allocated for “school feeding assistance”, which is a cash grant allocated to designated schools to assist in the maintenance of school canteens. It is part of a larger $9.36-billion allocation for student support services, which include the school nutritional support and PATH beneficiary assistance.
