Parents to Pay for Children’s Milk in Schools

The government of Uganda has secured a partnership between the Ministry of Education and SNV Uganda, a Netherlands development Organisation, which will help in subsidizing parents to provide milk for children at schools.

This was announced on Thursday by Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja during The Prime’s Question Time in Parliament.

“As such, parents will contribute between Shs10,000 and Shs20,000 each term to ensure their children are fed milk at School,” Nabbanja told the plenary.

This followed a question by Hon Juliet Achayo (Ngora County) who asked Nabbanja why Government is “adding a burden to parents to pay for milk to be given to children at schools.”

The Prime Minister said that milk was chosen because it provides bone-building nutrients, specifically Calcium, Vitamin D and Magnesium which are of high nutrition for both good health and development.

On September 6, 2022, a Joint Planning Meeting for the School Milk Program (SMP) for the Kampala Metropolitan area (Kampala, Mukono and Wakiso) was held at Fairway Hotel, Kampala.

This followed a directive by First Lady and Minister of Education, Hon Janet Kataaha Museveni, who recommended that; no child should spend a whole day at school without lunch and a need to think and discuss the school feeding problem to find a lasting solution.

She recommended that parked meals are a modest alternative for rural schools despite its advantages in hygiene.

Through her Karamoja Initiative, the First Lady urged all stakeholders to make it their duty to mobilise and sensitise people on school feeding, harnessing available resources, especially food production and the need to take the commitment to feeding children to the furthest step.