The Tribune

By Fay Simmons

Tribune Education Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

The national breakfast programme is set to launch in October with eight schools across the country.

Glenys Hanna-Martin, Minister of Education, announced last week that the $1m national breakfast programme will cater to 2,500 students across eight New Providence and Family Island schools.

The primary schools identified for the pilot exercise are Columbus Primary, Ridgeland Primary, Sandilands Primary and Albury Sayles Primary in New Providence and Rolleville Primary in Exuma, Holmes Rock Primary in Grand Bahama, Cherokee Sound Primary in Abaco and Old Bight Primary in Abaco.

Ms Hanna-Martin explained that all children attending participating schools will be able to take advantage of the programme and that initiates such as this help to provide support for underprivileged families and nutritional support for students.

“Now research has shown globally that breakfast programmes provide support for struggling families, fuel students’ health and learning, provide nutritional support for children, lead to better attendance rates and fewer missed days, and higher student performance,” she said.

“This pilot programme will allow us in those select schools to be able to monitor and collect data and to test the outcomes, because these are the outcomes that we would anticipate and expect.

“The purpose will be to provide free breakfasts to all students, not a select few. The traditional lunch programme caters to students in need, but the breakfast programme will cater to all students attending a school.

Students will be provided with a balanced breakfast on Monday, Thursday and Friday.

Ms Hanna-Martin said that those days were chosen because many families suffer a food deficit on the weekend.

She said: “The government is doing this because there is a commitment to doing whatever is necessary to ensuring first of all that children are in school. That’s a priority - get children in school.

“Secondly, to ensure that they receive quality instruction while they’re in school, for their human development and for securing the overall well-being and the future of our nation. And thirdly and importantly, is to ensure that children have access to food as they attend school.”