THE IMPACT OF FEEDING PROGRAM ON PERFORMANCE AND BEHAVIOR OF SBFP BENEFICIRIES IN PARADA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
____________________
A Research Study Presented to The Faculty of the Graduate School MEYCAUAYAN COLLEGE
_______________ ___________________ ____
In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Education Major in Psychology
By\
March 2012
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The researcher wishes to convey her heartfelt gratitude to the following persons for their countless support: Dr. Javier, Dean of the Graduate School and her adviser, for her constructive criticisms and for giving him hope and courage to finish her research. Chairman and panel members, who did thorough evaluation of the manuscript and whose suggestions were most appreciated by the researcher. Lastly, I would like to thank the principal, teachers, pupils and parents involved in the study who selflessly shared their stories and resources with her. To her family who supported her in this journey and always willing to discuss her research. Researching and writing this dissertation has been the greatest professional development opportunity of her life and she is deeply grateful for her parents for their unselfish assistance and never ending encouragement. Most especially, her loving husband, Michael and child Micah for the understanding and emotional support given to her. Above all, to God Almighty, for the light and guidance and for all the blessings He showered upon her, for without Him, everything ev erything is impossible.
J.A.M.C
APPROVAL SHEET
This
dissertation
entitled,
THE
IMPACT
OF
FEEDING
PROGRAM
ON
PERFORMANCE AND BEHAVIOR OF SBFP BENEFICIRIES IN PARADA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL prepared and submitted by JOY in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN EDUCATION , Major in Psychology has been examined and recommended for acceptance and approval for oral defense.
Adviser ________________________________________________________ ____________________________ ______________________________________ __________ PANEL OF EXAMINERS Approved by the COMMITTEE ON ORAL DEFENSE as Pass with with ( ) No revision ( ) minor revision ( ) major revision on ______________________.
Chairman
Member
Member
Member
Member
Accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Education, Major in Psychology. Comprehensive Examination : PASS
DR. JAVIER Dean, Graduate Studies Date : March 2013
TABLE OF CONTENTS TITLE PAGE
.................................................................................... .......................................... ..........................................
ACKNOWLEDGMENT………………………………………………….. APPROVAL SHEET…………………………………………………….. ABSTRACT ……………………………………………………………..
CHAPTER 1
THE PROBLEM AND REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Introduction …………………………………………………….. Related Literature………………… Literature……………………………………………… …………………………….. .. Theoretical Framework……………………… Framework…………………………………………. …………………. Conceptual Framework …………………………… …………………………………………. ……………. Statement of the Problem ………………………… …………………………………………… ………………… Hypothesis …………………………… ………………………………………………………… ………………………………. …. Significance of the Study …………………………… …………………………………………… ……………… Scope and Delimitation Delimitation …………………………… ………………………………………………. …………………. Definition of Terms …………………………… ……………………………………………………. ………………………. CHAPTER 2
METHODOLOGY
Research Design …………………………… ……………………………………………………… ………………………… Setting of the Study Stud y …………………………….. Research Instrument ………………………………………………………. Procedure of Gathering Data …………………………………………. Statistical Treatment of Data …………………………… …………………………………………. ……………. CHAPTER 3
PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA
CHAPTER 4
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Summary Conclusion Recommendation BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDICES
…………………………………………………. …………………………………………………….
CURRICULUM VITAE
…………………………………………….. ……………………………… ……………..
Chapter 1 THE PROBLEM AND REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Introduction
Malnutrition remains one of the biggest problems in schools in the country. The lack of proper nutrition among pupils negatively affects the physical and mental development. If the children are undernourished or over-nourished, they might find it difficult to focus on the lesson and understand what their teachers are saying. They have poor concentration in class (Smart Tools, 2012). When children’s needs are well catered for holistically, they perform well. Providing nutritious meals is an area of concern, as it helps improve their performance in school. Studies on malnutrition and its effects have also revealed that many Filipino school children go to school without eating anything. This causes hunger among the students that resulted to student’s absenteeism, poor school performance, or even dropping out from the school. These are what the Department of Education (DepEd) wants to avoid. These are the reasons why the education system finally decided to intervene and promote the government’s campaign against malnutrition and poverty. poverty. In countries where school attendance is low, the promise of at least one nutritious meal each day boosts enrolment and promotes regular attendance. Parents are motivated to send their children to school instead of keeping them at home to work or care for siblings. In the poorest parts of the world, school meal programmes can double primary school enrolment in one year. Among the key beneficiaries are girls, who otherwise may never be given the opportunity to learn.
Food programmes work towards achieving feeding programme. The programmes directly address the goals of reducing hunger by half and achieving universal primary education by 2015, and of achieving gender parity in education by 2005 (Sessional Paper, 2005). School meals contribute in, the long term to combating poverty, but it also helps to reduce disease. It provides a platform for directly addressing child health an d nutrition. The role of food is, therefore, instrumental in providing school children with nutritional supplements, increasing access and establishing attendance in the targeted areas (UNESCO 1999). Pre-school children in Kenya are severely or mildly malnourished (CBS 1979). In one of their researches, (CBS 1992), found that at least a third of Kenyans who are under five years suffer from either mild or severe malnutrition. Deped Secretary Bro. Luistro said “Short-term “Short-term hunger syndrome is observed among public elementary school children who do not eat breakfast or walk long hours to reach school,” In connection the DepEd launched the School Based Feeding Program to allow school administrators to decide what time to conduct the feeding that will address the nutritional needs of severely wasted pupils. Every meal that is provided to a child should contain a balanced diet. Food from each of the three groups should be included in the meal in order to come up with a well balanced diet. Failure to address the children requirements like school feeding programme has led to failure of quality feeding programmes in the centers. A study showed that there is an impact of School Feeding Programme (SFP) on Early Childhood Education. In this study, researcher wants to emphasize the impact of school feeding programme on the academic performance and behavior of pupils.
Related Literature School Based Feeding Program
Among the poor, there is often not enough food at home, and most schools in developing countries lack canteens or cafeterias. School meals are a good way to channel vital nourishment to poor children. Having a full stomach also helps them to concentrate better on their lessons. A feeding programme is a scheduled activity of providing enough nutrition and balanced diet to a selected group of people. It is a laid down schedule for a school to give food to children to enhance learning and other activities (Mitchell et al., 1999). School-Based Feeding Program (SBFP) in the Philippines started last October 2012 and will continue up to March 2013 to provide nutritious meals to selected pupils suffering from severe malnutrition for 100 to 120 feeding days. It’s objectives is to rehabilitate 70% severely wasted beneficiaries to normal nutritional status, to ensure 85% classroom attendance and to improve children’s health and nutritional values and behavior. The SBFP developed standardized recipes using malunggay and a 20-day cycle menu utilizing vegetables locally grown in school gardens. Standardized recipes are: Malunggay Delight, Misua with Malunggay Leaves, Malunggay Veggie Mix, Malunggay Fishballs, and more. Iodized salt was ----For sustainability and effectiveness of the SBFP, complimentary activities like deworming, food production, waste segregation, values development, good grooming and Essential Health Care Programs (EHCP)
Schools not identified as SBFP beneficiaries collaborates with the local government unit, non-government organizations, parent-teachers associations and other community stakeholders for the implementation of similar feeding programs. Deworming. Beneficiaries are dewormed before the start of the school year so that the children will get the full benefit of the nutrients of the food. Food production. Incompliance to Deped No. 234, all schools should plant at least 50 malunggay trees within the school premises. Waste segregation. Segregating is to have containers for biodegradable, non biodegradable and recyclable materials. Values development. Conducting training seminar on values formation and nutrition education to parents and pupils for long term effect. Good grooming. Samples of good grooming and proper hygiene are proper haircut, wearing clean clothes, hand washing, toothbrushing, and keeping nails short and clean. Essential Health Care Programs (EHCP). A school based health program of the DepEd in partnership with the Local Government Unit (LGu). The program advocate simple and cost effective health intervention. School Feeding Programs on Performance
Children are the future of any society. For this reason, they should be the starting point of any strategy that emphasises human development. The education of young children in our country has become of primary importance to educators, parents and the society as a whole. The problem of child malnutrition continues to plague societies and ends up affecting the education of the child.
The number of hungry school-age children is unknown, but is likely to be a significant problem in various circumstances. Many factors contribute to hunger in school children; the long distances children have to travel to school, cultural meal practices that include no or small breakfasts or a lack of family time or resources to provide adequate meals to children before and/or during the school day. Simply alleviating this hunger in school children helps them to perform better in school. In Jamaica, providing breakfast to primary school students significantly increased attendance and arithmetic scores. A US study showed the benefits of providing breakfast to disadvantaged primary school students. Before the start of a school breakfast programme, eligible (low-income) children scored significantly lower on achievement testes than those not eligible. Once in the programme, however, the test scores of the children participating in the programme improved more than the scores of non-participants. The attendance of participating children also improved (Meyers, 1989). 1989 ). In Peru, 23 malnourished and 29 well w ell nourished nine to 11-year-old boys were studied to assess the effects of breakfast on cognitive performance. Each boy served as his own control in a manner comparable to the Jamaica study cited above. Breakfast was a nutritionally fortified beverage and a baked grain product fortified with iron, similar to the meal provided in the government-sponsored school breakfast programme. A series of cognitive tests were administered in an experimental setting. Speed in performing a short-term memory test and discrimination of geometric patterns were improved under the breakfast condition in both groups. The effect was more pronounced in the nutritionally disadvantaged children (Pollitt, Jacoby and Cueto, 1994).
SBFPs are one of several interventions that can address some of the nutrition and health problems of school-age children. SFPs, and other school-based nutrition and health programs, can also motivate parents to enroll their children in school and to see that they attend regularly. The SFP has demonstrated sustained results over the years. External evaluations of the programme have found that the activity produces positive results. A study conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in 2003 found that school feeding improved academic achievement. A nutritional survey 2007 by WFP found that children in schools with feeding programmes are five times more likely not to suffer from anaemia than those children who are in schools without it. The average haemoglobin and concentration of children from SFP is 11% higher than the average haemoglobin concentration among children from non-school feeding assisted schools. Therefore, SFPs help to prevent hunger, which will help the pre-schoolers children to participate and concentrate in class, and, therefore, improve performance. A well nourished child is able to attain better grades, learn all day and has some energy left to make most of other evening activities like coping with pressure, stress, resist infection have alert and active mind. These are positive ingredients of good performance and even beauty goes hand in hand with key players of correct nutrition as the skin and hair reflect your diet. In order to cater for the health and nutritional needs of pre-schoolers, preschool institutions are advised to introduce lunches, feeding programmes and milk services. Preschool teachers should encourage parents to organise mid morning refreshments and lunch for children who stay at school the whole day. They should be taught about nutrition,
food groups, nutritional deficiencies, food production, planning and preparing family meals, food hygiene, and diet for expectant mothers, babies and pre-school children. School Feeding Programs on Behavior
A research conducted by Pollit (1984), revealed that there is a three-way relationship between health, nutrition and psychological development of a child, which influences food intake and absorption. For example, a child who is not happy may not eat well and even when he/she eats may not benefit fully from the food eaten. In addition, a child who is sick or hungry is less active and does not interact well with the environment around him or her (Werner 1982). Mitchell (1983) argues that eating is a crucial part of every person’s life. We need food for energy to do all the activities and all our body complex bio-chemical processes. School feeding programs are premised on the expectation that serving food at school will increase enrolment and daily attendance of students. Thus, school feeding programs are hypothesized to alter the schooling decision for families who would not have sent their children to school otherwise (Adelman, (Adelman, Gilligan, and Lehrer 2010). This behavioral change by both the parents and the children is reflected in the rates of increase in such outcomes as enrolment, attendance, and length of schooling, and decrease in dropout rate, tardiness, and absenteeism. School Feeding Program on Age School Feeding Program on Gender Statement of the Problem
This study aims to determine the effect of feeding program on academic performance and behavior of the pupil beneficiaries ben eficiaries of Feeding Program in Parada Elementary Scho ol.
Specifically, it sought to answer the following questions: 1. What is the demographic profile of the pupils? pup ils? a. Age b. Gender 2. What are the behaviors of the pupils in terms of: a. b. c. st
th
3. What are the performance rating of the pupils in 1 grading and 4 grading? 4. Is there significant effects of SBFP on demographic profile of the respondents? 5. Is there significant effects of SBFP on academic performance and behavior of the pupils? Significance of the Study Government Agencies. To further improve ways of learning and find an alternative,
affordable, appropriate approach that will make feeding sch ool children more possible, School Heads. To gather sponsors on the feeding program for effective
implementation and management of SBFP. Teachers. To continuously impart knowledge on nutritious foods and its impact to
academic performance and consistent learning. Parents. To identify the type of food that would be beneficial to their children. Scope and Delimitation
This study was conducted in Parada Elementary School in East District, Division of Valenzuela of the school year 2012-2013. The respondents are the identified beneficiaries of School Based Feeding Program. The researcher focused her study on the impact of School Based Feeding Program on the performance and behavior of severely wasted pupils. Theoretical Framework
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs This study was guided by the human needs theory of Abraham Maslow (1943). According to this theory, there are certain minimum requirements that are essential to decent standards of living. These are known as physiological needs. They include food, shelter, health and clothing. They are primary needs and have to be catered for before other needs such as security and shelter, sense of belonging and affection, love, esteem and finally self actualization are pursued. Maslow proposed that mans drive towards certain direction can be arranged in a hierarchical order according to h is needs as follows. The first level of physiological needs is the basic needs of everyone which are food, shelter and clothing. Security of the self is the second hierarchy of needs by Maslow. The third level is social need, which is a need to belong to a certain group or association. This includes friendship, love and belonging. The fourth level is self-esteem, which is a sense of self-respect and self motivation. It also includes how one ma y relate to other people. The Th e last level is of self-actualization, whereby man strives towards a viable experience and personal growth. Maslow says that a human being goes through a hierarchy needs starting with lower needs to higher needs. Example teachers or parents should ensure that they provide
nutritious foods to the child in order to have a healthy growth. Safety and security needs are referred to as freedom from fear and anxiety and also protection from emotional harm. Children should be provided with safety and security so as to do well in school and even at home. Failure to provide security creates discontentment. The social needs include love and belonging where children should be acceptable and provided with friendship. The selfesteem needs are the prestige needs whereby one feels he/she wants to be recognised. This makes children feel proud of themselves. The utmost need is the self-actualisation, which is the motive to become all that a person is able to be. This requires self-drive so as to achieve the goal one desires. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, it demonstrates that when needs are met or fulfilled, pupils are generally happy and contented. The atmosphere in the school is good and learning goes on smoothly. The reverse is true in that when the needs are not met or fulfilled there is discontentment. This model highlights the importance of food provision and security. From a broader view of development, it means that countries must also struggle to provide basic needs for use by their population. For a developing country like Philippines, it means that poverty must be prevented by making basic needs like food, clothing and shelter available to all citizens. Since man cannot survive without food, the government should make an effort to reduce food insecurity, especially amongst vulnerable groups like children. Where food aid is available for instance in schools through school feeding programmes, it will encourage good health, high motivation, participation, attention in class and will obviously reduce hunger. It should be properly monitored to ensure it assists the children (King, 1966). Conceptual Framework
The study tested a model showing the connection of behavior and performance of School Based Feeding Program beneficiaries. Below is a model of how one theorize or makes logical sense of the relationship between independent and dependent variables. Book on Methods of Research by Jose Calderon define variables as anything that can take differing or varying values. Southard (2006) also stated the same definition, anything that varies or changes in value this is because a variable represents a quality that exhibit differences in value, usually in magnitude or strength. Sekaran (2003) suggested that dependent variable is the variables of primary interest to the researcher. Instead independent variables are one that influences the dependent variables in either a positive or negative way. w ay. Therefore, the independent variable for this study are School Based Feeding Program, the dependent variable are the academic performance and behavior. Hypothesis
There is no significant effect of SBFP on demographic profile of the respondents? There is no significant effect of SBFP on academic performance and behavior of the pupils? Definition of Terms
For a better understanding of the study, the following terms are defined operationally and theoretically in order to make some clarifications in the context of how these are used in the study. School Based Feeding Program. This is a scheduled activity of providing enough
nutritious and balanced diet to children at school. Academic Performance. Ability to do well in attainment of skill, knowledge and
attitude.
Behavior. Retention. Beneficiary. Severely Wasted.
Chapter 2 METHODOLOGY
This chapter focused on research design, participants, sample and sampling procedure, research instruments, validity and reliability of the instruments data collection and data analysis procedures. Research Design
This research was a survey study. The researcher used descriptive research design for descriptive purposes. It is a kind of design used in studies that have individual people as the units of analysis. It involves some individual persons who must serve as respondents or informants. Descriptive research design can be used when collecting information about peoples’ attitudes, opinions according to feelings or any of the variety of education or social issues (Orodho and Kombo, 2002). Descriptive research is useful in describing the characteristics of a large population. This helps the researcher to ask many questions that provides considerable flexibility in the analysis. analysis. Participants/ Setting of the Study
The target population are the severely wasted pupils of Parada Elementary School. The Feeding Program was mandated by the Department of Education wherein each school should conduct School Based Feeding Feedin g for their target beneficiaries. Parada Elementary School lies in the East portion of Valenzuela City under District 2.
Valenzuela, in Spanish is a diminutive form of Valencia of Valencia,, Spain which means "little
Valencia". Valenzuela was named after Pío after Pío Valenzuela, Valenzuela, a doctor and a member of Katipunan of Katipunan.. The town preceding Valenzuela that was originally called Polo was formed in 1621 due to religious separation movements from parishes of Meycauayan (Catanghalan).
Valenzuela
was
called
Polo.
The
name
Polo
was
derived
from
the Tagalog
term pulô meaning island, though the area was not an entirely island for itself. The original town of Polo was blessed by the rivers from the north and Tullahan River on the south. Hence, the enclosed land was thought to be an island, so the early townsmen regarded the place as Pulô which later evolved into Polo done by Hispanicization of the word.
Research Instruments
The study used the following instruments in gathering data needed for the study. The primary data was collected using questionnaires, observation list, performance tests and interviews guides. Secondary data consisted of report forms of pre-schoolers. 1. Questionnaires. Include questions on demographic profile such as age and gender of the st
respondents. It also contains the academic performance of the pupil beneficiary during 1 th
and 4 grading period. 2. Behavior Test. 3. Interview schedule. The researcher conducts an interview to parents and those in charge of the feeding programme in the respective schools. Validity
Validity according to Mugenda and Mugenda (1999) is the accuracy, meaningfulness and the degree with which results obtained from the analysis of data actually represent the phenomena of the study. In order to determine the validity of the instruments before administration of the questionnaires, the researcher presented them to the supervisor for analysis and critique. This helped the researcher to rectify and come up with good reliable instruments and also to ensure credibility of the results. Reliability
Reliability has to show the degree at which the research instruments will yield good results. In order to achieve this, the researcher administered the instruments herself in order to assess their clarity. Data Gathering Procedure
Sampling is the procedure a researcher uses to gather people, places or things to study. It is a process of selecting a number of individuals or objects from a population such that the selected group contains elements representative of the characteristics found in the entire group, (Orodho and Kombo 2002). Only 10 SBFP pupil beneficiaries were the selected respondents for this study. Questionnaires were delivered to the respondents and a period stated on when to complete them. After this period the questionnaires collected and put in a safe place for confidential purposes. The whole information given by each respondent was put together and recorded down accordingly accordingl y for interpretation and analysis. Statistical Treatment of Data
Data gathered from the questionnaire were tabulated and interpreted using the following statistics. 1.
Weighted Mean was used when when options to the items or questions of the
questionnaire are assigned points or weight. A weighted mean is an average computed by giving
different
categories
considered
mathematically obtained as given below: Formula: WM =
Where:
f N
and
described
following
the
range-scale
WM= Weighted Mean = summation f = frequency w = weight N = respondents 2. Standard deviation
Chapter 3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
This chapter presents the results, the analysis and interpretation of research findings. This presentation follows the sequence of the statement of specific problems such as posited in Chapter I. Interpretation of data were made after putting them in tables for more clarity of presentations. Significant findings and interpretations were discussed for important indications and implications and were presented in this section of the study. The Profile of the Respondents
Table 1 exhibits the profile of the pupil respondents in terms of age and gender. gen der. Profile
Frequency
Age 5 – 6 7 – 8 9 – 10 11 - 12
2 1 3 4
Gender Male Female
14 6
Percentage
The Pupils’ Academic Performance Table 2 reflects the profile of the pupil respondents based on their academic performance during the first and fourth grading period. Performance Rating
st
1 Grading Period %
th
4 Grading Period
70 – 74
f 3
f 1
75 - 79
6
5
80 – 84
1
4
85 – 89
0
1
90 - 94
0
0
%
Reference
Alderman, H., Gilligan, D., and Lehrer, K., 2010, The Impact of Food for Education Programs on School Participation in Northern Uganda, International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC.
DepEd Providing Nutritious Meals to Underfed School Kid, Rainier Allan Ronda (The Philippine Star), January 17, 2013 Malnutrition in Filipino Students Still a Big Problem, Infant and Pediatric Nutrition Association of the Philippines, September 23, 2011
Deficiencies of iron and iodine are among the th e most harmful types of malnutrition with regard to cognition. Iron deficiency renders children listless, inattentive and uninterested in learning. The research literature suggests a causal link between iron deficiency anemia and less than optimal behavior for learning (Nokes, van den Bosch and Bundy, 1998). Poor performance on a wide range of achievement tests among iron deficient children in school has been consistently documented. Remediation of iron deficiency through supplementation has eliminated the differences in school performance and Intelligence Quotient (IQ) scores between school children previously deficient in iron and those without iron deficiencies. In the case of iodine, most studies have focused on the differences in cognitive test performance between children who lived in communities with and without endemic goiter. The results show differences in favour of the non-goiter areas. In Sicily, for example, the proportion of children with below-normal cognitive scores was 3% in areas with with sufficient iodine, 18.5% in areas where iodine was inadequate, and 19.3% where iodine was inadequate and cretinism was endemic. Studies in Indonesia and Spain have documented similar effects on children in areas with insufficient iodine (Bleichrodt et al, 1987 ). Fortification of school rations is the most efficient and effective route to alleviating micronutrient deficiencies in schoolchildren where SFPs are in operation. In South Africa, soup fortified with iron and vitamin C was provided to 350 schools in an area of low socio-economic development on the Cape Peninsula. Results showed that initially 12% of six to seven year old and 20% of
eight to 12-year-old children had low weight-for-age, and 49% and 31% had low serum ferritin (a measure of iron deficiency) respectively. At follow-up, after 15 weeks o f intervention, iron status improved significantly; falling from 49% to 28% in six to seven-year-old seven -year-old children and 31% to 21% in eight to 12year-old children (Kruger and Badenhorst, 1994 p54). A relatively new breakfast programme in Peru, which includes an iron-fortified ration, was evaluated for its its short-term impact on diet, amongst other factors. The programme significantly increased dietary intakes of energy by 25%, protein by 28% and iron by 46% (Jacoby and Pollitt, 1994). A casecontrol study of the impact of providing heme-fortified cookies to school children in Chile found higher concentrations of haemoglobin amo ng children receiving the fortified cookies through the school lunch programme. The impact was most significant among children with greater demands for iron such as post-menarchial girls and pub ertal boys (Walter and Hertrampf et al, 1993 p7). Schools that depend on the community to organise and implement SFPs offer certain advantages. These advantages include increasing the contact, and hence communication, between parents and teachers, officials and others; giving parents the opportunity to become more aware of what goes on at schools; and serving to raise the value of education/the school for parents and the whole community. For example, school canteens are viewed as an important feature of education policy in Morocco. Since 1978, WFP and the government have supported school feeding. The programmes have strong government and community support and are viewed as part pa rt of a necessary package of inputs inpu ts for improving education. The feeding programme is credited with helping to maintain high enrollment and attendance and encouraging community participation in education. School cooperatives support the school canteens and parents associations assist with the transportation of food aid (WFP, 1 993). Research has, therefore, greatly emphasised the first years of life and the necessity for meeting adequately the physical, emotional, social and mental development of every child. It is therefore the task of all those who a re working with children, whether parents, teachers or members of any community to provide healthcare, nutrition and education during the important and formative years of early childhood (Myers, 1992). This sentiment is in accordance with the United Nation’s declaration of the right of the child. Nutrition must be recognised as a vital component of a quality early childhood education programme aimed at good performance. The pre-schoolers’ pre-schoolers’ nutrition and health are some of the factors that determine in part the child’s schooling and performance. Po llit (1984) says that malnutrition has become the highest risk factor for the educatio nal future of children. It has serious developmental implications in young children because their ag es are critical in growth and development. Therefore, education on nutrition should form an integral part of early childhood education programme. Research has shown that two most important co ntributions to cognitive development and physical development differences are heredity and nutrition (Myers 1988). A child has a continuous individualised process of change in co mplex levels of cognitive, emotional, socialisation, body movement and speech among others, if the diet of the child is of nutritious values. He argues that a healthy child makes gain in language, cognitive and
motor development compared to a child who is malnourished and retarded in growth. This helps the child in better performance. Pollit (1984) says that malnutrition has become the highest risk-factor for the educ ational future of children. It has serious developmental implication on young children because their ages are critical in growth and development. Eshiwani (1990) states that nutrition education may be the single most effective way to enhance economic productivity and to promote the well being of a family. Therefore, the actual e ffectiveness of nutrition education in promoting the well being of a family needs further determination. The Kenyan government should bdedicate its efforts towards improving the well being of its people by enhancing education and eradicating poverty and disease. d isease. King (1966) argues that the most serious long term effects of sickness or malnutrition are of course those permanently a ffecting the intellectual functions and the learning capacity. This does not exclude the day d ay to day effects of hunger. It is an everyday observation that children who are on a poor diet show little activity and lack energy. The children in preschool are losing part of the most important period of edu cation. Hough (1987), in his book Education and the National Economy says lack of food, good health and hygiene have a major effect on life and thus performance in education. Many children do not get enough of the right food to eat. They do not grow well, they become ill, many die and they do not grow up as clever, as healthy or as tall as they should be. Students have shown that hunger has adverse a dverse effects on cognition problem solving and concentration as they contend that hungry hu ngry children are found to be less alert and lethargic (UNESCO 1990). Kings (1966) argued that more effective methods be sought and it should be noted that children need nutritious foods to support growth, play and learning thus creating interests in schools. He believed that only healthy ch ildren could utilise fully the opportunities provided by schools to develop to the full their intellectual potentiality. This fuel comes in different forms like in proteins, vitamins, water carbohydrates and mineral salts. It is well known as Gagne (1977) argues that nutritional problems and sickness interfere with learning because they reduce the degree of concentration. This has been succinctly expressed as generally poor health, recurrent illness, inadequate diet and unsatisfactory home which all contribute to rendering the child insufficiently alert and receptive in the class room. School feeding really helps alleviate this problem and helps to increase participation, capacity and concentration in school. Oyugi (2007) in her study stated that feeding programmes in various preschools have given the participation of children direct benefits and that parents, teachers, and stak eholders have acquired better knowledge and skills on issues related to health nutrition and care of the children. SFP is, therefore, of great concern to the well being of children as it plays a great role in their development. Those who care ca re for the children, for example the pre-school teachers, should, therefore, ensure that the food given to children is well balanced. Pollit (1984) argues that hunger at school is common and it interferes with learning process. Many children go to school without eating e ating breakfast and sometimes miss lunch. This leads to adverse effects of hunger for example cognition, problem solving and concentration. Hungry children are less alert and lethargic. SFPs cannot be expected to make ma ke direct measurable contribution to combating malnutrition among school ch ildren. Attention has
thus been focused on school feeding role in maximising children’s learning capacity through the relief of short-term hunger, where children are helped to concentrate and assimilate. Kenya is currently facing a multitude of challenges. ch allenges. Recently, the government declared food shortages as a national disaster and announced tha t 10 million Kenyans were in need of food assistance. As a result of drought, many families resort to extreme measures, to try ways of getting food. They are made to withdraw thei r children from school to look for food or o r income. Due to hunger these children fail to go to school and even when they go, hunger diminishes their ability to learn. When children are hungry, the y are unable to concentrate co ncentrate in class. School feeding is an effective platform for providing micronutrient food supplementation and other health interventions that improve children’s’ ability to get the most out of food.
School Feeding Programs on Retention Rate
In order to encourage good performance a good feeding programme should be there to encourage enrolment and attendance and discourage dropout, provide the child with the right food for health and strength, sustain learning process in children through encouraging participation and concentration, and prevent children from feeling hungry while at school. Hungry children cannot pay attention in class Levinger (1989) says that SBFPs make a difference in enrolment and attendance of children to school. The programme also helps poor families by giving their children a good meal each day and thus saving family food. SFPs cannot be expected to make a direct measurable contribution to combating malnutrition among school children. The focus is on school feedings role in maximising maximising children’s learning capacity through the relief of shortshortterm hunger, and thus improving performance. Although not a school feeding programme in the traditional sense, school-based food distribution has also been used successfully to improve enrolment and attendance among school-age children, particularly girls. In Bangladesh, a programme of school-based food distribution increased enrollment by 20% versus a 2% decline in non-participating schools (Ahmed and Billah, 1994 p34).
In Pakistan, a programme provides an income transfer in the form of one or two tins of oil to families whose girls attend school for 20 days per month. In its pilot phase, the oil incentive programme demonstrated that it could make a significant contribution to full attendance. In participating schools enrollment improved by 76% compared to 14% in the province overall. Looking at school attendance and enrolment in comparable to schools with or without SFP or observing changes in pupil’s number and daily attendance after introduction of SFP, a SFP evaluation study was carried in 1991 by Jarousse and Mugat to assess the relative importance of different factors in the learning of pre-schools pupil, in Benin. The study showed that SFP had positive results because children looked healthy and performed better than those who were not provided with a feeding programme. When looking for possible explanation for such a positive relationship between learning achievement and the existence of a SFP, the research identified two possibilities that there was improved nu trition of children because of SFP and attendance was good in those schools. Attending school regularly improves pre-school children cognitive development, which improves learning and performance (Jarousse and Mugot, 1991). Attendance increased from 73% to 95% among participants. The programme also claims to put additional food into the hands of mothers and to serve as a contact between mothers and teachers on distribution days (WFP, 1995 p41; 1996 p14). These food transfer mechanisms do not offer the same potential benefits, for example, meeting short-term hunger and specific nutritional needs, as programmes that deliver food directly to beneficiaries. These kinds of programmes should, therefore, be assessed within w ithin the context of other food and resource transfer programmes. A detailed discussion of the range of
options from food stamps, coupons and vouchers to a cash transfer for food can be found in the design.
