Fulchhari upazila of Gaibandha district has been brought under School Feeding Programme (SFP) this year aimed at making the primary education a success.A total of 27,968 students under 105 government and 53 non-government primary schools of the upazila have been brought under the SFP, official sources said.The long term objective of the programme is to contribute to the implementation of the government’s education policy of universal primary education, notably by improving access to basic education of school aged children from poor and ultra poor households and ensuring quality education to the students.Directorate of Primary Education in partnership with RDRS Bangladesh, a reputed NGO, will implement the SFP in the upazila with the financial support of World Food Programme (WFP), said project manager of RDRS Bangladesh Kabir Alam.Each of the students is getting 75 gram of high energetic biscuits at first period of school time except the holidays, he said.Programme manager of RDRS Bangladesh Porsia Rahman said the SFP is also being implemented in other three upazilas—Shaghata, Sundarganj and Gobindaganj— of the district from 2006. For creating positive impact to the students and their guardians and increasing the enrolment and attendance rate significantly side by side with decreasing the dropout rate to a great extent, the authority concerned introduced the SFP in Fulchhari upazila, she added.
Talking to the BSS, district primary education officer AKM Amirul Islam said awareness activities on systematic de-worming, primary healthcare and sanitation and motivating teachers and students for school vegetables gardening are also going on in full swing under the programme. An effort to increase the female members in school managing committee for WFP’s enhanced commitments to women is also being implemented under this programme, he added. -BSS, Gaibandha
