Análisis de cationes y aniones

School feeding has its origins in the 1930s when schemes were introduced in the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US) with the explicit purpose of improving the health of learners Richter, Griesel and Rose, (2000:78). In the UK a programme that subsidised milk for school children was initiated in 1934 and milk was provided free from 1944 onwards Baker, Elwood, Hughes, Jones, and Sweetnam (1978:56). In the late 1960s and early 1970s this benefit was withdrawn from all children, except from those who were considered to be particularly needy - an early example of the targeting approach in school feeding. School feeding was introduced to South Africa in a programme to supply free milk to White and Coloured schools in the early 1940s.

It is a known fact that children learn best when they are not hungry or suffering from a nutrient deficient diet. However, thousands of South African children still arrive at school each day on an empty stomach which compromises their ability to learn and to achieve better results. It was with this in mind that former president, Nelson Mandela, called for a primary school nutrition programme to be introduced in 1994. Since then the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) has benefited learners in the poorest schools across the country. In 1994 the South African Department of Health introduced a nationwide primary school feeding programme which was, subsequently, taken over by the Department of Education in 2004. The NSNP, previously known as Primary School Nutrition Programme (PSNP), was introduced in 1994 as one of the Presidential Lead Projects of the Reconstruction and Development Programme. The programme was introduced as a strategy to alleviate poverty (Report and on the evaluation of the National School Nutrition Programme, 2008:4).

The Ministry of Education’s (MOE) mission is to provide a relevant education to all South Africans at all levels - irrespective of gender, tribe or religious and political affiliation. Since the election of the post–apartheid government in South Africa in 1994 attempts have been made to address the needs of marginalized groups, especially women and children suffering poverty Steyn and Schneider (2001:89). The school feeding programme was initially known as the Primary School Nutrition Programme (PSNP) but was later renamed the National School Nutrition Programmer (NSNP). In 1996 a different nutrition programme, the Intergrated

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Nutrition Programme, was introduced and established by government as nutrition and health have a powerful influence on children’s learning performance (Bourne et al.,2007:236).

The PSNP was implemented in 2004 as one of the Presidential Lead Projects to alleviate hunger amongst identified vulnerable primary school children by attempting to meet their nutritional needs with a daily snack. The United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF (2001:34) maintains that when a child lacks nurturing care or suffers from malnutrition, stress, trauma, abuse or neglect, the growing brain is the first casualty. Children who lack certain nutrients in their diet, particularly iron and iodine, or who suffer from protein-energy malnutrition, hunger, parasitic infections or other diseases are unlikely to have the same potential for learning as healthy and well-nourished children Kallman (2005:45). This is because learners who are hungry experience more difficulty concentrating and performing complex tasks - even if they are otherwise well nourished. The purpose of introducing the School Feeding Programme in schools was to solve the problem of hunger in schools so that learner enrolments would increase; they could concentrate on their studies; and learner dropouts would decrease.

Initially, the programme was coordinated by the Department of Health because it was regarded as a health promotion initiative, but in 2004 it was relocated to the Department of Education. To ensure the success of the programme, policy and operational guidelines, systems and procedures were established in the Republic of South Africa’s White Paper on the Reconstruction and Development Programme (2004:34). Monitoring and evaluation tools were introduced and personnel were recruited and trained to manage the programme. Furthermore, community participation was a core facet of the implementation of the project and structures, such as School Governing Bodies (SGBs), were established to monitor the programme’s implementation. Aspects of local economic development (LED) were factored in through the introduction of a tendering system that promoted the contracting of small, medium and macro enterprises (SMMEs) as service providers of food supplies to schools. Female volunteers were recruited as food handlers for the preparation of food at the respective schools and they were paid a monthly stipend Report and on the evaluation of the (National School Nutrition Programme, 2008:33).

Politicians see the school feeding programme as a means of gaining popularity and in 1955 the African National Congress (ANC) recognized nutrition as a crucial key issue, among others, that needed attention. According to the Constitution of the South Africa, Act 108 of 1996, every

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citizen - regardless of gender, race, colour, sexual orientation or religion - has the right to adequate food and good nutrition. Many governments have enshrined this right in their respective constitutions and South Africa is no exception.

School feeding programmes occur in many different forms, depending on context and timing. Broadly speaking, the two major goals of SFPs are education and food security Bennett (2003:78). Educational goals include increased enrolment and attendance, particularly for girls, and improved concentration during teaching which would be aided by the food provided in terms of nutrition. The goals of food security include the reduction of short-term hunger and the improvement of the nutritional status of school children and, thereby, reduce levels of malnutrition.

The researcher’s main aim was to learn from participants whether the school feeding programme, because of the food that it provided, increased enrolments and attendance in schools and improved concentration in class.

2.3.1 The Aims of the Primary School Nutrition Programme The aims of the PSNP are the following:

 To improve educational outcomes by enhancing active learning capacity, school attendance and punctuality by providing an early morning snack;

 To improve health through micronutrient supplementation;  To improve health through parasite control/eradication;

 To improve health by providing education on health and nutrition;

 To enhance broader development initiatives, especially in the area of combating poverty; and

 To link the PSNP to other RDP programmes and integrate it into a broader Integrated Nutrition Programme (Department of Health’s National Policy Framework and Operation Guidelines for the PSNP, 1995:54).

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2.3.2 Principles of the Primary School Nutrition Programme The principles of the PSNP included the following:

 Community involvement and empowerment whereby community members, parents and education personnel are involved in the design, implementation and monitoring of projects.

 A holistic approach linking school nutrition activities to other initiatives to improve the quality of education, such as community development and health initiatives.

 A multi–sect oral and interdisciplinary intervention, jointly managed by the Department of Education and Department of Health and involving other departments, such as those for Welfare and Water Affairs.

 Projects are part of sustainable development processes aimed at achieving greater self- reliance; the provision of food is seen as only a short term measure which should be phased out as other RDP initiatives start having positive effects. Department of Health’s National Policy Framework and Operation Guidelines for the PSNP (1995:55).

Several evaluations of the programme took place between 1996 and 2003. The overall purpose of the evaluations was to provide a comprehensive, but rapid, assessment of the main problems, weaknesses and strengths of the programme as well as of its management and implementation. This was in order to make recommendations to the Department of Health on how to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the programme and how it could best become part of the Department of Health’s Integrated Nutrition Programme (INP). A host of issues, such as management and beneficiaries of the programme, were identified during the evaluations and they needed to be factored into the programme to improve it.

Emanating from the evaluations, the following critical issues were identified in the (Republic of South Africa’s report on the NSNP, 2004:32):

 School feeding programmes are expensive and logistically complicated - as proven in the administrative challenges experienced at all levels of management.

 Capacity, both in terms of personnel and skills, is lacking and management systems - especially in rural areas - are inadequate and under-resourced.

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The evaluations also provided an opportunity to reflect on whether locating the coordination of the programme under the Department of Health was appropriate. Based on the above critical issues, amongst others, the coordination of the programme was relocated to the Department of Education. The relocation was accompanied by a refinement of the aims of the programme which were as follows:

 The focus of the programme was to be on educational outcomes of school feeding and not, necessarily, on nutrition.

 As school feeding was being implemented in schools it was the functional responsibility of the Education Department.

 Managing the programme would provide an opportunity for the department to integrate school feeding into the broader context of educational development.

The NSNP was conceptualised, primarily, as an education intervention which was aimed at addressing children’s ability to learn, rather than a health measure intervention to improve the learner nutrition (Kallman, 2005:32). It should be noted that when the PSNP was coordinated by the Department of Health, it was responsible for menu planning and the nutrition, while the Department of Education was responsible for implementing the programme in schools. With the programme under the jurisdiction of the Department of Education, provincial departments of education are responsible for both drawing up targeting criteria for schools and the selection of menus. The targeting process is based on the quintile system, which was determined by the Department of Education to rank all ordinary public schools from the “poorest to least poor” (Report on the Evaluation of the National School Nutrition Programme, 2008:10).

Schools are ranked on the basis of physical conditions, facilities, crowding and the relative poverty of the community surrounding the schools. Furthermore, provincial departments of education are responsible for the management of the programme, including the procurement of services and the facilitation of establishing school food gardens which are meant to be a source for vegetables to be served at the respective schools (Report on the Evaluation of the National School Nutrition Programme, 2008:12).

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2.4 LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK RELATING TO THE NSNP.