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The Bauchi State government has sacked the principal and some staff of Hassan Usman Katsina Unity College (GHUKUC) for denying students full ration in the school’s feeding programme.
Commissioner for Education, Aliyu Tilde, in a statement said the officers were caught serving food meant for 350 students to over 1,200 students last weekend.
The commissioner did not disclose the name of the principal, but said a new principal has been appointed for the school.
“A new principal was appointed by the Ministry this evening for the Unity School, which draws students from all 19 northern states. A robust high-tech arrangement for monitoring of student meals along with designated resident food police will soon be deployed to all boarding secondary schools,” said Tilde.
Bauchi has the most out of school children in Nigeria, and the state government had to key into all programmes geared towards addressing the situation. The Federal Government’s National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP) now feeds over 9.8 million pupils daily in 32 states.
The Bauchi government in July pledged to provide the required logistics support for the sustenance of the (NHGSFP). Under the scheme, school children in over 53,000 public primary schools are fed with one free, nutritious meal a day, while it has engaged over 106,000 cooks in the 32 states. The programme has not only helped to increase enrolment rates of pupils, but is also effectively tackling early year malnutrition and improving the cognitive skills of children. But the programme is also witnessing a lot of corrupt practices from cooks to school authorities.
