Evaluation of the school feeding programme and pupils academic performance in Ghana: a study of the catholic relief service feeding programme in Savelugu/Nanaton District

Abstract

One successful method to ensuring that children attend school on a regular basis is through school feeding programmes. Many different organisations fund school feeding programmes, among them the World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Bank. In Ghana the Catholic Relief Service (CRS) is one such organisation involved with school feeding in the Savelugu/Nanton District. The general objective of the study is to evaluate the CRS intervention of the school feeding programme and its effect on academic performance of pupils in the Savelugu/Nanton district. In this study the Single Subject research design was adopted. One hundred respondents were selected from a population of teachers of beneficiary schools. Questionnaires were used to elicit responses. The major findings as determined from the statistical records available showed that there were three thousand six hundred and one (3,601) children. Out of this total, boys were two thousand and ten (2,010) as the girls were one thousand five hundred and ninety one (1,591). The respondents attributed some positive effects of the feeding programme including increased in enrolment and retention, improved academic performance, educational access for the girl child and monetary savings for parents. It is recommended that educational infrastructure should be expanded to accommodate the increasing enrolment, reliable source of funding should be secured to sustain the programme and an exit strategy gradually adopted so parents do not feel perpetually dependent on the feeding programme.