What went viral on social media through a video on what was served to boarding house students of a secondary school in Akwa Ibom State was unfortunate and calls for concern. The meal appeared poorer than what is served to prisoners who do not pay for feeding. It is a tragic revelation that young Nigerians are being poorly treated in their learning environments in their country. The fear is that the Akwa Ibom experience is regularly replicated in other schools nationwide, with no one to complain or redress.
It is good that the state government has launched an investigation into the matter. The Commissioner for Education, Mrs Idongesit Etiebet, announced that the college’s principal had been suspended pending the outcome of the investigation. “I have directed a comprehensive investigation into the state of boarding facilities in the school (Presbyterian Senior Science College, Ididep) and the other 25 boarding secondary schools across the state. This review, which will focus on hostels, dining halls, recreation areas, menu, kitchen and sanitary facilities, will be jointly overseen by permanent secretaries of the Ministry of Education and the State Secondary Education Board,” she said.
It was learnt that the students in boarding houses in the state pay for feeding as the government’s free education policy covers only tuition fees and not boarding fees. That notwithstanding, the welfare and dignity of the students deserve adequate attention and respect from the government and authorities of the boarding schools. As the government investigates the unpalatable and innutritious meals, Nigerians are waiting to know the real cause: how long the students have been made to eat such meals; who are the people saddled with the responsibility of monitoring what the students eat and whether they are doing the job and reporting to relevant higher authorities; whether there is a mechanism through which students can complain about the way they are being treated, the quality of meals they are being served and other necessary explanations?
A boarding arrangement is one in which students live in hostels on the school premises to receive formal instruction, whereas day students come from their homes daily to the school to learn and return home after receiving formal instruction. The marked difference between the two sets of students is the meals and lodging provided to those in boarding houses, for which fees are usually paid. Parents take their children to boarding school because it reduces distraction, makes them feel independent and develops self-discipline, which helps them focus on learning intensely.
But if what Nigerians saw as a meal served to the Presbyterian Senior Science College students in Akwa Ibom is typical of meals served in other institutions of learning, it says so much about how not to handle boarding schools. The meal in question has been adjudged to be innutritious and capable of negating the expected benefits of being in a boarding school. No doubt, some of the students know that they are not being served good food. They develop the feeling that they are being maltreated, punished and short-changed. They know that they deserve something better than what they are getting. These affect their concentration in the classroom and, consequently, academic performance. It could even discourage learning.
Besides, poor meals have adverse effects on the body chemistry of students. Studies conducted in some advanced countries, including the United States, have, to a large extent, established that improved nutrition has the potential to influence students’ behaviour and academic performance positively. Specifically, some of the studies have proven that nutritious foods directly affect the mental capacity of a school-age child. According to experts, iron deficiency in food, for instance, leads to a decrease in what is medically known as dopamine transmission, which will negatively impact the child’s cognition.
Similarly, deficiencies in other vitamins and minerals, particularly thiamine, vitamin E, vitamin B, iodine and zinc, have been shown to affect cognitive abilities and mental concentration negatively. Professionals have also proven that good nutrition helps put students in good stead and ready to attend school and learn. When a child is better fed, it may lead to better behaviour that will reduce the level of distraction in the classroom and make the learning environment better or more attractive.
The poor meal saga in Akwa Ibom is another confirmation of the consistent failure of educational authorities to implement laudable programmes effectively. It is a sharp reminder of the myriad of complaints that characterised the federal government’s school feeding programme, which led to its suspension in January of last year by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Specifically, there were serious complaints that what was being served the students as the meal was of poor quality and not enough to feed them; the programme was being poorly funded with a budget of less than N100 per child in a day; lack of kitchen facilities in most schools that made the cooking of the meals to be contracted out to food vendors with little or no supervision or monitoring to ensure that the preparation is done hygienically; poor implementation of the scheme in some states that led to its discontinuation because of failure to pay the food vendors promptly; lack of accountability in funding; and alleged lack of political will to ensure the success of the intervention.
Why is the country like this? What exactly is wrong with public servants? When will they do something that will be worthy of commendation? It is shameful that school authorities cannot implement a programme to encourage children to embrace education that will put them on a path to self-development so they can make meaningful contributions to nation-building. There are reasons to say that this country has consistently disappointed the young and future generations. Because the government cannot effectively provide security for the children even in their learning environments, they have become vulnerable to frequent attacks by terrorists and other criminal elements. Many children have been killed, and others have suffered kidnap and displacement from their ancestral communities. Thousands of Nigerian children who have been orphaned by terrorists, especially in northern parts of the country, are now roaming the streets as out-of-school children. And now, poor-quality meals are being served to those still in school. It is discouraging.
While Nigerians await the outcome of the investigation of the meal saga in Akwa Ibom, the investigators should do a good job and make recommendations that can be useful and adopted by other schools in the state and others in Nigeria. Considering the country’s food inflation problem, which may constitute an issue in students’ feeding, the government should take more serious counter-inflation measures to stem high prices of food items.
Governments at all levels should prioritise children’s welfare and dignity. They must be adequately protected against insecurity and all manner of treatment that can hamper their desire to be educated appropriately.
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