I now understand why Universal Primary Education (UPE) has continued to produce bad grades. If the ministry of education has proposed for local governments to enact bi-laws to compel parents to provide meals to their children in schools, pupils have been studying without eating meals.
But I wonder, if the government has no funds to feed these children, why does it expect it from the parents?
When the government initiated Universal Primary Education (UPE), its major aim was to help those poor parents who could not afford to educate their children. They even enacted laws to punish those parents who denied their children the right to free education.
And now they dare to propose that local governments to enact laws that compel parents to feed their children while at school. But is this right, does government know that there are parents who only afford one meal a day?
If government introduced UPE and requested parents to embrace it, then I believe it is the duty of the same government to feed the pupils. I know the government is already aware that the people who utilize UPE are those who cannot afford any other form of education for their children.
When you check families in remote areas, you will discover that many can only afford only one meal a day; a meal that is not balanced enough to ensure good nutrition. So how can such parents be expected to afford feeding these children at school?
The government should get realistic. If they forced poor families to take their children to school, the least they can do is to also feed those children while at school. I believe it is cruel to enact laws to force parents to feed their children at school when they cannot afford it.
If the government cannot feed them then it is high time they accept defeat and take the UPE program as a failure. Otherwise, we may end up with malnourished children in form of pupils.
