Durban - The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) in KwaZulu-Natal has called for the immediate cancellation of the current National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) tender as the school feeding system continued to face challenges.
The union's provincial secretary, Nomarashiya Caluza, explained that on March 31, the previous contract between the Department of Education and various service providers who had been contracted to supply food items in schools had ended.
The department said the new contractor had faced problems which had left several schools not receiving any food or an adequate amount.
Caluza said the NSNP was necessary because of the poor economic situation that the learners faced, particularly those from rural, township, and informal settlement schools.
She said the current situation impacted negatively on the curriculum delivery at schools and on the dignity and the rights of learners in schools.
“It puts principals, SMTs (school management teams), educators and school governing bodies in a dilemma as to whether to open (schools) or not as the difficulty of teaching starving children mounts every day,” she said.
Caluza added that the union was disturbed by the fact that there was no action nor any immediate commitment from the provincial education department to address the crisis.
“Sadtu KZN is of the strong view that something went wrong in the appointment of the service provider. The challenges emanating from the delivery and collection of food items are concerning to Sadtu and the broader society and we have a reason to worry as that impacts directly on the delivery of quality public education that as Sadtu we have committed to. We are on record, many times as Sadtu , calling for the NSNP to be handled directly by SGBs.” Caluza said.