PESHAWAR: A government initiative approved one and a half years ago to supply high-energy biscuits to malnourished students of primary schools in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has yet to be executed.

The School Feeding Programme was meant to increase school enrollments, decrease dropout rate and improve quality of education, the elementary and secondary education department officials told Dawn.

The officials said the SFP was reflected in the 2015-16 Annual Development Programmme as a pilot project for the far-flung Upper Dir district with the Rs100 million proposed budgetary allocation.

After its PC-I valuing Rs97.570 million was cleared by the education department, the programme secured the approval of the Provincial Development Working Party mandated to formally approve development projects, in Jan 2015.

It was planned that the World Food Programme having a vast experience of such initiatives would help the education department execute the SFP.

Under the programme, the students of 612 government schools, including 440 of boys and 172 of girls, were to get free high-energy biscuit.

These schools have enrolled 74,268 boys and 26,856 girls.

The project’s implementation period was one year but even after the passage of one and a half years, it seems highly unlikely that it’ll be executed in the next one year.

A relevant official claimed the education department considered the SBP’s execution unfeasible and a waste of money.

“The education department will require billions of rupees to extend it to other districts of the province,” he told Dawn.

The official wondered if the provincial government was currently strapped for cash for development activities, how it would arrange billions of rupees only for the distribution of energy biscuit to schoolchildren.

He claimed the use of energy biscuits would have ‘no good impact’ on the children’s education.

“Look, the children daily eat biscuits bought from local shops. Is their education improved with it,” he said.

The official also said children were not fond of high-energy biscuits as it tasted bad.

He said such biscuits were provided by international relief organisations to Afghan refugees and internally displaced persons living in camps.

The official hastened to add that energy biscuits were sold by the roadside after most refugees and IDPs sold them.

Asked why the SFP was included in the ADP if it’s not feasible, he insisted it was a politically-motivated initiative with an influential person advocating it.

Another official of the education department said for improving schools enrolments and checking dropout among girl students, a donor-funded programme was executed from 2001 to 2010 in seven KP districts, including Kohistan, Upper and Lower Upper, Swat, Buner, Battagram and Kohistan.

He said under the programme, the girl students were given four litre of edible oil for showing 80 per cent attendance in a month.

The official said the programme interested parents just because it reduced their kitchen expenses.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2017