The students of Alaykha Primary School in Bango Gewog of Chhukha will now get to eat nutritious food from the school, with the starting of the day feeding programme. Parents and students welcomed the programme with smiles.
Majority of the students of Alaykha have to walk for over an hour to reach the school, there are also some students who walk for about two and a half hour to school.
The students are happy that they now will get two meals, breakfast and lunch from the school. The day feeding program was inaugurated yesterday.
“We are very happy to get breakfast and lunch at school. The food is tasty too. We now get more free time to study as we get food from school now,” Pema Selden, a student, said.
“I am happy to get food from school. I ate much today. It is tastier too. Now I won’t feel hungry in school. It will also help me to focus on my studies,” Kinley Namgay, another student, said.
Parents will now no longer have to get up early to cook packed lunch for their children.
“This day feeding program is beneficial even to the parents. When we have more children going to school, it is difficult to provide them with good meals, since we have to attend to other daily chores as well. So, it is very challenging for us to prepare a meal and pack it for them. Now with this program, we just need to make our children ready. They can walk to school and eat from there. Also we can focus more on our works,” Pandom, a parent, said.
According to Dzongkha education officials, the program will help enhance effective learning in schools. Similarly, seven more primary schools in Chhukha have already started the day feeding program.
Today over 700 students in Chukha are benefitting from this program. The dzongkhag education sector plans to start the program in all the schools gradually.
