Factors influencing implementation of child fund International school feeding programme in public Primary schools in isiolo central division, isiolo County, kenya

Abstract

Hungry pupils do not concentrate in learning. The school feeding programme is an effective tool in reducing pupils drop out rate. Subsidized meal programmes are used in primary school to promote enrollment and retention of rural children education and play an integral part in realizing the country’s goal to universal education. Hungry pupils are likely to miss out schooling, becoming impoverished in future due to lack of education if not assisted with school feeding programme. The purpose of the study was to investigate the factors influencing implementation of Child Fund’s International School Feeding Programme in public primary schools in Isiolo Central Division, Isiolo County. The study was guided by the following three objectives. How community participation, clan conflicts and procurement influences the implementation of Child Fund’s School International Feeding Programme. The target population was 10 primary schools in Isiolo Central Division that Child Fund International has implemented the school feeding programme, 10 headteachers, 110 teachers and 279 class eight pupils and 5 Child Fund International School Feeding Programme Officials. The study employed a descriptive survey design. The sample for the study comprised of 10 headteachers, 120 teachers, 5 Child fund officials and 84 pupils. Data was collected using questionnaires and focus group discussion. Piloting was done to gauge the validity of the instruments items. Community participation had the highest reliability (α=0.834) followed by Procurement of food (α=0.763) and finally Persistent clan conflict (α=0.757).This illustrated that all the three scales were reliable as their reliability values exceeded the prescribed threshold of 0.7. Findings on the influences of community participation on the implementation of Child Fund’s International School Feeding programme revealed that community passively supported the Child Fund’s International School Feeding Programme. It further came out from focus group discussions of the pupils that the parents participated in the Child Fund International school Feeding Programme only if money was used as incentives. Procurement of food revealed that the schools were located in an inadequate food supply area as indicated by majority 6(60.0%) of headteachers. The study too revealed that the area suffers conflict hence the programme has suffered sometimes, though food acted as a tool to retain pupils in school as was indicated by majority of the pupils 44 (53.7%), hence it mitigates the conflicts and clan clashes by providing a sense of routine, stability, structure and hope for the future because it offers safe spaces for learning. Based on the findings the study concluded that community participation was minimal, procurement of food was done by the administration with less involvement of the community members and the area suffers conflicts. The study recommended that to ensure ownership of the school feeding intervention school administration, School Management Committee and Child Fund International should ensure community participation and responsibility in school feeding programme. The researcher administration, School Management Committee and Child Fund International should ensure community participation and responsibility in school feeding programme. The researcher therefore suggested that further study to be conducted in a larger area to ascertain the implementation of Home Grown School Feeding Programme in public primary schools. Since the study was carried out in a rural setting, there is need to conduct a similar study in an urban informal settlement so as to compare the results.