Nairobi County in conjunction with the Ministry of Education is set to provide free meals to learners in public and primary schools, under the school feeding programme.
The announcement came after Education CS Ezekiel Machogu held a consultative discussion with Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja and Dagoretti South MP John Kiarie on Thursday.
“The program will improve learner's motivation particularly those from slums and informal settlements within Nairobi,” Machogu said.
Other leaders present in the meeting were Principal Secretary of Basic Education Belio Kipsang, and Principal Secretary of Higher Education and Research Beatrice Inyangala.
While appearing before the National Assembly on Wednesday, Machogu said payment of lunch fees for Junior Secondary School learners is not mandatory.
He clarified that parents are responsible for their children's meals, according to the guidelines of the Implementation of Junior Secondary School.
“Guideline 8.6 (i) states that "Provision of school meals in JSS shall be the responsibility of the parents/guardians" while (iii) states that "The JSS leadership shall ensure that no learner drops out of school as a result of failure to pay the lunch programme fees," Machogu said.
The CS noted that the two clauses did not contradict each other, saying in clause (i), parents could either decide to pay fees for the provision of lunch at school or pack lunch for their children.
"What normally happens is that the Board of Management convenes a meeting comprising the parents of that particular school and after discussing and agreeing on a figure that each parent is supposed to pay towards the provision of lunch to their young ones, then they pay that," he said.
"It is not mandatory, it is optional. There are parents who say yes, I'm not going to pay, I will be able to provide such that my child can carry food from home to school."
He added that the Ministry was working to ensure that schools served all learned who lacked lunch.
