School Feeding Programme Resumes In Osun

The Federal Government school feeding programme in Osun State has resumed at Saint James Primary School B, Owoope, Osogbo, after it was suspended in December following the alleged poisoning of some pupils.

According to Punch, about 18 pupils of Saint James Primary School B, Owoope ended up in the hospital after taking a midday meal of rice with egg and vegetables on Monday, December 11, 2023.

The incident generated an uproar in the state, as the stakeholders demanded a thorough probe, making the state government to suspend the feeding programme in the school.

The state government directed a probe into the incident and subjected the affected pupils to test at the Osun State University Teaching Hospital, Osogbo, after which the state Commissioner for Education, Dipo Eluwole, said the pupils were all certified well except one that was observed to be suffering malnutrition.

A delegation of the Federal Government, led by Senior Special Assistant to the President on School Feeding, Yetunde Adeniji, also has paid a visit to Osun State following the food poisoning incident.

Adeniji said the visit was a fact-finding one to get abreast with updates on the purported food poisoning on December 12 under the state government’s Home Grown School Feeding programme.

“The FG will be establishing a monitoring and evaluation unit to ensure continued commitment to the safety and success of school feeding programmes across the country. In the coming days, our office would ensure government policies are strictly adhered to across the federation to standardise school feeding programs in Nigeria, amongst other sweeping reforms,” Adeniji said during the visit.

Weeks after the state government directed a probe nothing was said about the outcome.

However, checks by newsmen 1, on Monday, revealed that the school feeding programme had since resumed in the school with pupils eating the midday meal.

Speaking with Punch on Monday, the Osun State Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, said the programme resumed not long after the government probe was concluded.

“The programme resumed not long after it was suspended after the government had done thorough investigations. The initiative is running without hitch and the pupils are eating without any problem,” he said.