20 August 2024
Statement: The Equal Education Law Centre commends the Minister on halting the R10 billion centralisation tender for the National School Nutrition Programme
The Equal Education Law Centre (EELC) welcomes the decision by the Minister of Basic Education Siviwe Gwarube to halt a R10 billion tender to centralise the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP).
The NSNP reaches over 9 million school children per year. It is one of the key ways in which the Department of Basic Education (DBE) fulfils children’s rights to basic education and to basic nutrition. Recognising that children cannot learn when they are hungry, the NSNP aims to ensure that learners receive the nutritious meals they need to participate at school and get the most out of their lessons.
However, the NSNP is not without its faults. Where a provincially centralised model is currently used, there have been serious problems. In KwaZulu-Natal, a R2 billion contract was awarded to a single supplier to deliver food to over 2 million learners. The supplier has failed to deliver food to the schools as agreed, with thousands of learners missing out on nutritious meals. Last year, one school received just 24 litres of sour milk to feed 350 learners for a week.
In light of these grave problems, the EELC is deeply concerned by the lack of public consultation on the decision to shift to a nationally centralised model, with a single private provider entrusted to procure and distribute food to children across the country. These concerns are heightened by the long-term nature of the commitment – the proposed project is for a period of 10 years with an opportunity to extend this by a further three years. Putting the question of corruption aside, this decision seems rash.
We are also seriously concerned about plans to fold early childhood development (ECD) centres into the nationally centralised model. Admittedly, the ECD sector has long been neglected and the protection of young children’s rights and their prospects of wellbeing and success could be greatly enhanced by better nutrition support. We strongly encourage the DBE to use the R197 million that it has been allocated by Treasury in 2024/25 to pilot an ECD nutrition programme. However, we think it would be a mistake for the DBE to commit to using a nationally centralised form of NSNP to reach young children at ECD centres without first testing and comparing it with alternatives.
In 2023, the EELC worked with the Real Reform for ECD Movement on a series of research papers, exploring possibilities for providing nutrition support to young children at ECD centres. For registered centres, we recommended direct cash transfers. The government currently provides a subsidy of R17 per eligible child per day to registered ECD centres – an amount that has been frozen since 2019. We recommended that this subsidy should be increased to ensure that ECD practitioners can provide nutritious meals to the children in their care, as well as buying toys, early learning materials, cleaning supplies, and other essentials. Given the complexities of providing support to children at unregistered ECD centres, we recommended testing two different models: a provincially centralised model and a provincially decentralised model. In our view, it is essential that the NSNP team works closely with the ECD Directorate within the DBE to plan the most effective way to use the budget it is been allocated for testing ways to deliver nutrition support to South Africa’s youngest.
Finally, we were alarmed to note that the extended NSNP project envisaged in the tender document aimed to reach a tiny proportion of young children – only 120 000 children per year at selected ECD centres. This is 5% of the 2.2 million children who currently attend an ECD programme, and less than 2% of the 7 million children aged 0 to 5. We call on the DBE to publish clear, transparent, and robust plans for piloting and scaling up nutrition support for young children at registered and unregistered ECD centres across the country.
We commend the Minister on taking action to halt the tender and we urge her to ensure that no dramatic, long-term changes to the NSNP (of the kind set out in the tender document) are made without careful consideration of the alternatives and consultation with those most affected. The NSNP is one of the DBE’s biggest budget line items, accounting for one third of the national education budget. It is bigger than the entire Northern Cape education budget! If ECD centres are also included in the NSNP, the large budget will grow. It is vital that these funds are used wisely, and in the best interests of children.
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To arrange an interview, contact: Jay-Dee Booysen (EELC Media and Communications Specialist) at jay-dee@eelawcentre.org.za or 082 924 1352
