The Tribune

By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

MORE than 2,000 students will receive free meals with the expansion of the National School Breakfast Pilot Programme in five more schools, according to Education Minister Glenys Hanna-Martin.

The programme has been expanded to five schools in New Providence: CW Sawyer Primary School, Stephen Dillet Primary School, Woodcock Primary School, Yellow Elder Primary School, and E P Roberts Primary School.

On Monday, 2,300 students within these schools will receive free breakfast three days a week until the end of the academic year.

In October 2023, the $1m National Breakfast School programme launched in New Providence with four primary schools and expanded to four Family Island primary schools in November 2023. Mrs Hanna-Martin said participant schools in New Providence student attendance increased by 3.9 per cent during the initial months of the programme. Family Island schools recorded an increase of 7.2 per cent in attendance, she said.

At a press conference at the Ministry of Education on Friday, the education minister underscored the breakfast programme is one of the strategies used to promote student attendance and punctuality. Truancy or low attendance has been identified as a major problem impacting the education system. Mrs Hanna–Martin said too often students are seen wandering around on the streets in the morning when they should be in school. While the attendance rate has increased through the use of officers and the national school attendance hotline, she said more improvement is still needed.

“They're about 3,000 students in the system in the public-school system that had punctuality challenges,” she said. “What we found is that this breakfast program has assisted in getting children to the schools earlier.”

The impact of the breakfast programme is more than just a meal, the minister emphasised. She said students having breakfast together helps them to bond with each other and build social skills.

She added she’s an advocate for the programme to be universal and expand to junior and senior high schools. However, she said there needs to be funding for it to be expanded.

“We have to see what kind of modalities can be struck whether its public, private, however, so that we're able to deliver breakfast in the morning.”

More Family Island schools are expected to be added to the programme.

In November 2023, criticisms were leveled at government’s national breakfast programme on social media after images of some of the meals were circulated - with some comparing it to “jail food.” The programme’s coordinator Benita Adderley at the Office of the Prime Minister in October 2023 said the meals were nutritious and healthy.

Asked about the type of meals being served, Senior Education Officer Daisry Higgs said the meals are high in nutritional value with each ingredient being chosen to provide vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, and other benefits. The team who created the meals also has a background in food nutrition science, she added.

The breakfast meals are available to all students in the selected schools. Mrs Hanna-Martin said the breakfast being open to every child means there’s no discrimination or stigma about students eating the meals.

Additionally, officials have also pushed for students to be engaged in extracurricular activities as a strategy to prevent school violence. Studies have shown students involved in positive activities are less likely to have behaviour management issues.

As of February 2024, the National School Breakfast Pilot programme served over 55,000 breakfasts to students.