SCHOOL FEEDING PROGRAMME AND LEARNING OUTCOME OF PRIMARY SCHOOL PUPILS IN ONDO STATE NIGERIA: MODERATING INFLUENCE OF GENDER
Nigeria is one of the developing countries that introduced School Feeding Programme (SFP) in order to enhance enrolment, attendance, and academic performance of primary school pupils and keep children in schools. Therefore, SFP came into being in order to reduce hunger and malnutrition among school children because of high level of poverty and malnourished children in Nigeria. This is a safety net to support the achievement of the Universal Basic Education’s mission of delivering high-quality education for all pupils. Thus, this study examined perception of primary school pupils toward the effectiveness of school feeding programme on learning outcomes in Ondo State, Nigeria.
The research design for the study was descriptive survey type and ex-post facto. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select 592 public primary school pupils from three selected local government areas in Ondo State. The first stage was random sampling of one local government in each of the senatorial district namely: Akoko North East, Akure South, and Okitipupa. Simple random sampling was used at the second stage. Descriptive and Inferential statistics were employed to answer research hypothesis. Hypothesis was tested at 0.05 level of significance.
Findings from the study showed that there is a significant gender difference in the pupils’ perception towards the effectiveness in the implementation of school feeding programme as it influences pupils’ attendance [t= -6.203, p < .05]. The hypothesis was not rejected.
Based on the findings of the study, it was concluded that school feeding programme did not only enhance good academic performance or improve, sustain, and increase pupils’ school attendance but it is a potent predictor of learning outcomes. Therefore, it was recommended that government should strengthen school feeding programme among pupils in Ondo State.
Keywords: School feeding programme, learning outcomes, pupils.
