Breakfast to be Provided for Students in Underperforming Schools
By: , March 9, 2025
Photo: Minister of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, Senator Dr. the Hon. Dana Morris Dixon front row, centre), addresses Friday’s March 7) meeting of the Standing Finance Committee of the House of Representatives, whose members are reviewing the 2025/26 Estimates of Expenditure. She is flanked Permanent Secretary, Dr. Kasan Troupe front row, left); and Principal Financial Officer, Richard DePasse front row, right). In the background are heads of agencies and departments under the Ministry.
Minister of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, Senator Dr. the Hon. Dana Morris Dixon (front row, centre), addresses Friday’s (March 7) meeting of the Standing Finance Committee of the House of Representatives, whose members are reviewing the 2025/26 Estimates of Expenditure. She is flanked by Permanent Secretary, Dr. Kasan Troupe (front row, left); and Principal Financial Officer, Richard DePasse (front row, right). In the background are heads of agencies and departments under the Ministry.The Full Story
Minister of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, Senator Dr. the Hon. Dana Morris Dixon, says special nutritional support will be provided to 189 primary and 56 secondary schools in the upcoming fiscal year.
The schools identified for support are performing below par, and several of them have students who are in lower socio-economic groups and who are experiencing some level of food poverty.
Addressing Friday’s (March 7) meeting of the Standing Finance Committee of the House of Representatives, whose members are reviewing the 2025/26 Estimates of Expenditure, she underscored that school feeding is critical.
“We’ve seen where a number of our children are coming to school without any breakfast. We’ve seen that for those schools that provide lunch and [the children] are on PATH [Programme of Advancement through Health and Education], that is the only meal they may have. So, we’ve had to be very realistic as a Ministry and we’ve looked at that and we recognise that we have to do better,” she said.
As such, a decision was made to provide these students with two meals for the day.
“A commitment of ours is to ensure that breakfast is also provided. For those schools, they currently get lunch, but we are going to be providing breakfast also,” Dr. Morris Dixon said.
Under the National School Learning and Intervention Plan (NSLIP), these students are also offered extra teaching time on weekends and during holidays.
“We have a special programme where we’re actually putting the best labs in those schools, because we are trying to flip the narrative a bit, because where a school is not performing, it doesn’t mean that you should shun them. It means that they need more resources,” she said.