Challenges Facing School Feeding Programmes and Learning Participation in Pre-Primary Schools in Isiolo County, Kenya

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Date
2019-09
Authors
Oduya, Ann
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Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
Good nutrition is critical in the realization of the potentials in children and in maximizing the benefits derived from educational investment. Despite the widely acknowledged importance of feeding programmes across the world, there is evidence of disparity in providing feeding programmes in economically disadvantaged regions such as Isiolo County in Kenya. Among the benefits drawn from the provision of feeding programmes are: correcting deficiencies, alleviating short term hunger, and reducing intergenerational poverty. Infants as well as school going children are among the most affected by adverse hunger and malnutrition which may result to irreversible short-term and long-term cognitive functioning. The purpose of the study was therefore to establish the challenges facing the School Feeding Programme (SFP) in pre-primary schools in Isiolo County, Kenya. The objectives that guided the study are; To find out the available resources, determine the level of parental participation in the feeding programme, to establishthe variety of food provided and to identify the managerial challenges experienced in the feeding programmes. The study was guided by Human Capital Theory advanced by Schultz. The study employed descriptive survey design with the independent variable being the available resources, parental participation, variety of food and the managerial challenges, while the dependent variable was effective feeding programme. The target population was all the 200 public pre-primary schools in Isiolo County. Purposive sampling was used to identify public pre-primary schools, headteachers, teachers, education officer and parents while simple random sampling was used to identify one school from each cluster. These yielded a sample of 131. Data was collected using questionnaires, observation checklist and interview schedule. Qualitative data collected was transcribed and analyzed according to specific thematic areas and presented descriptively with verbatim quotes. The study established that the SFPs were dependent on the -govemment and donor funding, the level of parental participation posed a challenge on the SFP as they hardly contributed to the success of SFP in cash or in kind and the food provided was not balanced. More importantly the major challenges were: shortage of water, food insecurity, in accessibility, insecurity and harsh climatic conditions. Study findings are hoped to provide vital information to various stakeholders in early childhood education and other child minders. The study findings may help the Ministry of Education to enact policies that will help improve the situations of the school feeding programmes in Kenya.
Description
A Project Report Submitted in the School of Education in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement of the Degree in Master of Education (Early Childhood) of Kenyatta University, September, 2019
Keywords
School Feeding Programmes, Pre-Primary Schools, Isiolo county, Kenya
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