BASIC FACTS

Nutrition among primary school children is related to:

• Health status of the children i.e.
  - Presence or absence of common child illnesses e.g. malaria, respiratory track infections, diarrhoeal infections etc. This is due to the contribution of nutrition to body’s immunity against diseases.
  - Child’s growth measured through anthropometric indicators.

• Child’s cognitive performance (brain development and performance is influenced by good nutrition).

• Child’s physical performance (body’s physical activity depends on energy released from the food eaten).

• School attendance rate.
  -It is unlikely for a sick or hungry child to attend school and classes regularly.

Why should there be deliberate efforts to promote nutrition among school-age children

• Most of the school children spend 12 out of their 24 hours in school (including time to go to and from school) and they depend only on the evening meal provided at home for their nutritional needs.

• Most of the programmes aiming to promote child nutrition and health in the Third World have traditionally been concentrating on the under fives and deliberately forgotten the school age group (6-14 years).

• The existing sectoral programmes to strengthen primary school education (e.g. MMEM) have not given adequate attention and therefore lack comprehensive strategies to deal with this issue.

• The future social and economic development of the nation depends on the nutritional foundation laid during this period and hence school attendance and performance in class of school children.

Nutrition needs of primary school children

Children of this age group are active and growing fast. They therefore need:

• Adequate energy giving foods especially those of the plant origin (i.e. cereal or root crop-based foods) as well as body building foods especially those of animal origin (meat or fish) or pulses.

• Protective foods especially those of plant origin rich in the vitamins A, B-group and C as well as the minerals e.g. iron iodine, zinc etc. These are required to build resistance against common infections and support physical growth and development.

Nutrition Problems facing primary school children
Over the years Tanzania has expressed concern for the health and nutritional status for primary school, children, due to the fact that there is relationship between nutritional status and academic performance.

Evidence in Tanzania shows that high absenteeism, lack of concentration in class and early dropouts are a result of short-term hunger. About 50% - 75% of pupils go to school without breakfast and they do not get any meal during school hours.

The outcome of short-term hunger in the long run are the following major nutritional problems namely stunting, low body weight and micronutrients malnutrition including deficiencies of Iron, Iodine and Vitamin A. Children who consume inadequate amount of food necessary to meet the body’s energy and nutrients requirement have diminished cognitive abilities, reduced school performance, growth retardation, reduced physical activities, impaired resistance to infections and increased morbidity and mortality rate and hence adverse effects on productivity, incomes and national development.

School feeding Programme

School feeding programme is among interventions that can address nutrition and health problems of school age children. It can alleviate short-term hunger among children during school, hours. In this programme children should get at least one balanced meal per day. Examples of food crops that can be used to prepare meals at school are maize, rice, wheat, potatoes, cassava, yams, banana etc as staple foods. These foods should be eaten together with meat or fish or legumes like beans, peas etc, also with fruits and vegetables.

Issues of sanitation and hygiene should be taken of care properly in the entire school environment and ensure availability of clean and safe water to all children at school.

Management of community based school feeding programme

For a programme to be sustainable, it should be community based The Community will be able to mobilize human and financial resources, which will be used to run the programme effectively in their areas. Apart from that the community will be able to identify problems, formulate and implement plans and manage resources for school feeding programme through special committees.

School feeding committee formulated by the community will comprise the following key actors:- head teacher home economics and related subject teacher health officer, village executive officer, chairman of the school committee and parents. These key people will play active role in all aspects of programme implementation by acting as coordinators and organizers from food preparation to monitoring and evaluation of a programme and share results with the general community in their respective areas.

Monitoring and evaluation of the programme

Monitoring and evaluation of the school feeding programme can be done by assessing, looking and making follow up to the following items percentage of absenteeism, concentration of pupils in class, school dropouts, individual child school performance, performance in physical activities, nutritional status, morbidity and mortality rate. From the above-mentioned items if there is a positive impact this will indicate that programme objectives have been met or achieved.