In the early days of classes it is expected that school officials worry on the many physical shortcomings that confront the system every year. From classroom shortage to absence or lack of toilets, from dearth of textbooks or errors in the same to overcrowded classes - these are the concerns that usually get blown up in media releases.
There are, however, other critical issues that deserve serious attention. One of these is the nutritional status of school children. It is a fact that malnutrition affects the capacity of children to learn. Given all the learning facilities and a good teacher, still learning is hindered if the child is not in full health owing to insufficient intake of nutritional food.
For instance, if a child's intake of iron is deficient a permanent loss of IQ is likely to result. Such deficiency causes anemia which leads to short attention span, irritability, fatigue and difficulty with concentration. Language related skills such as vocabulary acquisition and reading proficiency are also traceable to iron deficiency. The same syndrome has also been observed with children who have inadequate intake of protein.
What's the nutritional status of our school children? Recently, Secretary Jesli Lapus commented that the malnutrition rate in public elementary schools has dropped from 21 percent to 17 percent, thanks to DepEd's Food-for-School program. This program, however, benefits only preschoolers and grade I pupils, hence its impact is limited.
More alarming were the figures of the Nutritional Nutrition Council which revealed that in 2006, 27 out of every 100 preschoolers were underweight and that among school-age children also 27 in every 100 were also underweight. Even among adolescents (aged 11 to 19), 18 out of every 100 had less than normal weight, and of those 20 years and older, 12 in every 100 were undernourished. In March this year the Food and Nutrition Research Council disclosed that almost 10 million families had a per capita food intake below the complete dietary requirement. While in 2005 the Food and Agricultural organization stated that there were 17 million undernourished Filipinos. Very upsetting information, these, even without considering the current rice crisis. Now with inflation pegged at more than 9 percent and still rising and people lining up for rice, the situation is not only alarming, it is life threatening.
Among school children, the incidence of malnutrition is rendering the educative process ineffective. Because children are not learning to their full capacity, the billions invested to keep them in school are not turning out the expected returns. At more than 130 billion pesos yearly, the DepEd has the highest allocation in the GA. Yet its output leaves much to be desired as shown by the results of assessments both national and global.
The lesson is clear for all stakeholders of Philippine education. Pouring money into the system is useless if many school children are underfed and ill-nourished. Yet if one looks at the budgetary allotment for schools' nutrition program, he will find that only a pittance is regularly set aside.
The Food-for-School program started in 2005 is a promising initiative. With preschool and grade I pupils as beneficiaries, it has served about 6.7 million of these children most of whom come low-income families. Being a form of dole-out, the FFP, however, is not sustainable considering the huge amount needed (P5.3 billion for the 3-year period). Despite this, the government should pour in more of its resources into this program, especially during these difficult days, if only to check the spread of food insecurity among school kids.
A more rational approach is to intensify food production in the home, community and school along with livelihood assistance and nutrition education. If parents and children undertake intensive gardening at home and in school nutritious food can be made available to offset vitamin and mineral deficiencies. In fact, this can be a good way to augment the family's income because what it raises can be sold for cash.
A good example of intensive gardening is the one pioneered in Argao, Cebu, few years ago by a group of UP agriculturists headed by Dr. Romulo Davide. Working under the banner of the "Farmer Scientists Program," these farm technologists have transformed impoverished farmers into high income corners through scientific cash crop production.
This approach plus other livelihood intensive programs goes a long way towards solving the nutrition problem among school children.
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Email: edioko_uv@yahoo.com