TEACHERS BRING BREAD TO FEED WEAK PUPILS

MBABANE – Teachers in certain schools have been forced to bring bread to feed weak pupils due to the non-availability of food at schools.

In fact, life for a majority of primary school pupils in the country is nothing but agony, as the children see the day through in school on empty stomachs, unless they were given a few slices of bread by their teachers.
This is more so because it has now been a while since government delivered food for the pupils through the schools’ feeding scheme, known as zondle.

The food from government was last delivered at the beginning of last year.

Starvation

This situation has resulted in many pupils complaining of headaches, stomach aches and sleeping in class due to starvation.
Government has not communicated with the schools about the current status quo.
Schools have run short of food and teaching equipment including stationery and chalks among other items.

Operations are almost impossible in most of the country’s primary schools with some of the support staff members having not been paid their salaries since October last year.
This publication visited a number of primary schools to find out about the situation.

The first stop was at Mangwaneni Community School, where meals have been suspended since the beginning of the first term.
Head teacher Jabulani Nkonyane said the situation was appalling to say the least.

He said the pupils would at times visit the kitchen to inquire from the school cooks if there was any food and when they could expect it.
A teacher at the school said they would at times sacrifice their own bread to give to the pupils who would at times be losing balance, becoming dizzy due to hunger.
At Qedusizi Primary school, the situation is much better.

However, Hlobisile Kunene, who is one of the cooks, said they took money from their remaining balance to purchase food for the pupils.
With the funds, they managed to buy samp, cooking oil and soup.

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