Cape Town - The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has established 571 food gardens at schools and has appointed 146 gardeners to ensure that they are sustained.
This was revealed during the standing committee meeting yesterday where the WCED provided an update on the National School’s Nutritional Programme (NSNP) and the Schools Nutritional Programme offered at schools across the Western Cape.
In the current financial year, more than R451 million was allocated to the NSNP, which includes 1 024 schools and feeds 507 332 pupils.
However, they are concerned how the national quintile system is excluding pupils in need.
In this system, schools are divided into five groups in which quintile one is the poorest and quintile five is the least poor, in terms of where the school is located.
However, this system does not speak to the socio-economic status of the student and this results in insufficient funding being allocated to provincial departments.
Based on this, the NSNP only provides for quintiles one to three schools, which means that less-affluent pupils in other quintiles are negatively impacted by this. Thankfully, through savings made from the NSNP, the WCED is able to fund selected quintile four to five schools for 190 days of the year.
Founder of Parents for Equal Education, Vanessa le Roux, said they want to commend this programme.
“Many children are dependent on a meal at school. Not only can these food gardens serve to assist food kitchens which give nutritious meals but it can also serve as a fund-raiser to the under-resourced schools. They can supply parents and the community with fruit and vegetables from these gardens,” she said.
DA spokesperson for Education in the Western Cape, Deidré Baartman, said WCED had once again shown that it was doing everything in its power to make sure quality education is delivered in the province.
“As the DA in Western Cape, we call on the national government to review the quintile system so that conditional grant funding such as the NSNP grant can be more impactful for our pupils.
“For children to be able to holistically learn, it is essential that they are properly nourished so as to not experience any stunting in their growth,” she said.