Ministry of Education Permanent Secretary for Technical Services, Joel Kamoko, has commended Mary’s Meals, a charity Organisation, for supplementing government’s efforts in enhancing learner performance in schools through the feeding programme.

Mr Kamoko says in the wake of the recent drought, the feeding programme has been cushioning the pressure of food insecurities in households by providing meals for chronically hungry children, thereby contributing to low drop-outs in schools.

ZANIS reports that the Permanent Secretary said this when he called on Eastern Province Minister, Peter Phiri, ahead of the Mary’s Meals feeding programme’s 10 years anniversary celebrations.

“I wish to commend Mary’s Meals for its efforts to feed the learners in these schools and given the drought situation, these meals have been lessening the burden for parents to feed the children whilst at school,” he said.

He acknowledged the need to improve school infrastructure in order to increase access to conducive teaching and learning spaces.

Speaking earlier, Eastern Province Minister, Peter Phiri, noted that the region continued to score high performance rates for examinations, due to collaborations with partners such as Mary’s Meals.

“You may be aware that Eastern Province is scoring high performances in examinations and so we recognise your efforts and hope that you will expand your programme to all the schools in the province,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mary’s Meals Country Director, Panji Kajani, disclosed that the feeding programme was providing meals to 500,000 pupils in over 1,000 schools across 13 districts in Eastern Province.

Mr Kajani said working in collaboration with the government and local leaders, the programme was celebrating 10 years anniversary of providing nutritious meals to school children due to the dedication and highly skilled team in the region.