School Feeding Program and Its Impact on Academic Achievement in ECDE in Roret Division, Bureti District in Kenya

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1 Journal of Emerging Trend in Educational Reearch and Policy Studie (JETERAPS) 4(): Journal Scholarlink of Emerging Reearch Trend Intitute in Educational Journal, 01 Reearch (ISSN: and ) Policy Studie (JETERAPS) 4(): (ISSN: ) jeterap.cholarlinkreearch.org School Feeding Program and It Impact on Academic Achievement in ECDE in Roret Diviion, Bureti Ditrict in Kenya 1 Beatrice Chepkoech Chepkwony, Bilhah Muthoni Kariuki and 1 Lydia Jepchirchir Kogei 1 School of Education, Moi Univerity P.O BOX Eldoret, Kenya. School of Education, Univerity of Kabianga P.O BOX Kericho, Kenya. Correponding Author: Bilhah Muthoni Kariuki Abtract The School Feeding Program (SFP) i an eential apect of child growth and holitic development. To etablih a functional SFP, parent hould be involved in all procedure to enure utainability of the program which will cater for children from divere ocio-economic background hence academic achievement among Early Childhood and Development (ECDE) children. The purpoe of thi tudy i to etablih the relationhip, if any, between type of chool and ucce of chool feeding program, and to determine the relationhip, if any, between chool feeding program and academic achievement among ECD children. The target population were Head teacher in Roret Diviion, Bureti Ditrict. The chool were firt placed in two trata of public and private category then chool were randomly elected compriing of 4 Head teacher. Data wa collected through quetionnaire adminitered to the Head teacher in the ECD centre. Obervation and checklit wa ued by the reearcher to verify what had been aid by repondent and validate what wa reported through quetionnaire. The data collected wa preented analyed and reported in term of percentage, frequencie, mean, chi-quare and F-tet. The reult obtained indicate that chool providing SFP howed high academic achievement among ECD children. The tudy i ignificant a it provide DICECE officer, teacher, Parent, QASO and policy maker to etablih functional and utainable SFP in all ECD centre with a view to improving health and academic performance in both public and private chool in Kenya. Keyword: chool feeding programme (SFP), academic achievement, ECDE in Roret diviion in Kenya INTRODUCTION A School Feeding Program (SFP) i eential to provide a balanced diet to ECD children which would in turn enable the children to increae their attention pan hence better academic achievement. In thi tudy it wa hypotheized that chool feeding program ha an impact on the ucce academic achievement at ECDE level. The School Feeding Program i a crucial component in the development of a holitic child. Nutrition and health are powerful influence on a child learning and how well a child perform in chool. The effect of under nutrition on young children aged (0-8) can be devatating and enduring. In the area of cognitive development, when there in t enough food, the body ha to make deciion about how to invet the limited foodtuff available. Survival come firt, growth come econd. Good nutrition involve conumption of a variety of food in appropriate amount, ince no ingle kind of food can provide all the neceary nutrient, protein, carbohydrate, fat, vitamin, mineral, fibre and water are all very important. Undernourihed children have hort attention pan which i linked to low glucoe level. Food provide a good amount of glucoe amongt children, proviion of balanced diet would enable children to develop their cognitive, pychomotor and affective domain. A healthy child will concentrate more in cla work hence developing the cognitive part. He can alo play to develop phyically and will interact with other with a lot of eae and grow in elf eteem. In the year 00 the Kenyan Government reintroduced Free Primary Education (FPE) to all public primary chool in Kenya aiming at booting primary enrolment and retention of pupil in chool. Every primary chool in Kenya ha an ECDE attached to it. However attendance of ECDE did not increae proportionally. Senitization wa not done on management of ECD Center which made parent to keep their children at home and have them move traight to tandard one. SFP in ECDE centre make children to enjoy the learning at the centre ince there i no proviion of food in the primary chool. The reearcher ought to etablih the impact of SFP and it relationhip with academic achievement among ECD children. Role of School Feeding Program School Feeding Program (SFP) are one of everal intervention that can addre ome of the nutrition and health problem of chool age children. SFP and other chool-baed nutrition and health program 407

2 can motivate parent to enrol their children in chool and to ee that they attend regularly, program effectively reduce abenteeim and drop out. School Feeding Programme (SFP) alleviate hortterm hunger in malnourihed or otherwie wellnourihed chool children, helping them increae attention pan and producing gain in cognitive function and learning, addreing pecific micronutrient deficiencie in chool aged children. Meeting the iron and iodine need of chool- aged children can tranlate into better chool performance. Increaed community involvement in chool, particularly where program depend on the community to prepare and erve meal to children are more effective than chool with le community involvement. Alleviate Short-Term Hunger and improve Cognition The number of hungry chool-age children i unknown, but i likely to be a ignificant problem in variou circumtance. Factor that contribute to hunger in chool children, the long ditance children have to travel to chool, cultural meal practice that include no or little breakfat or lack of family time or reource to provide adequate meal to children before or during the chool day. Alleviating thi hunger in chool children help them to perform better in chool. United State of America howed the benefit of providing breakfat to diadvantaged primary chool tudent. Once in the program, however, tet core of the children participating in the program improved more than the core of non-participant. The attendance of participating children alo improved (Meyer, 1989) In Pakitan, a program provide an income in the form of one or two tin of oil to familie whoe girl attend chool for twenty day per month. In it pilot phae the oil incentive program demontrated that it could make a ignificant contribution to full attendance. In participating chool enrolment improve by 76% compared to14% in the province overall. Attendance increaed from 7% to 95% among participant. The program alo claim to put additional food in the land of mother to erve a a contact between mother and teacher on ditribution day (WFP, 1996). In Bangladeh a program of chool-baed food ditribution increaed enrolment by 0% veru a % decline in no-participating chool (Ahmed and Billah, 1994). Micronutrient deficiencie and improve learning Deficiencie of iron and iodine are among the mot harmful type of malnutrition with regard with cognition, Iron deficiency render children retle, inattentive and unintereted in learning. In South Africa, oup fortified with Iron and Vitamin C wa provided to 50 chool in an area of ix to even year old and 0% of 8 to 1 year old children had low weight-for age and 49% and 1% had low erum ferrtin (a meaure of Iron deficiency) repectively. At follow up, after 15 week of intervention, iron tatu improved ignificantly, falling from 49% to 8% in 6 to 7 year old children. A relatively new breakfat program in Peru, which include an iron fortified ratio, wa evaluated for it hort-term impact on diet, amongt other factor. The program ignificantly increaed dietary intake of energy by 5% protein by8% and iron by 46% (Jacoby and Pollit, 1997). Makueni Ditrict in Kenya ha been providing chool lunche to every chool with a lot of upport from the World Food Program (WFP). Parent ait to provide ome food tuff; the aim i to enure that children are not hungry. Performance ha been excellent which ha been credited to a utainable chool feeding program with obervation made by Bimbo and Mwiria on the crucial role of nutrition in education. A number of intervention can promote the health and nutritional tatu of chool children. Children come from divere economic tatu therefore School feeding program can bring about uniformity among children who might be vulnerable making learning effective and high rate of competition. School Feeding Program etablihed in mot area are baed on alleviation of hunger, thi kind of program i een to be neceary in ASAL area where, the upply of food i minimal and mot chool depend on donor to provide food. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM Infratructure and financial reource have been a challenge in the etablihment of a ucceful chool feeding programme in ECDE Centre in Kenya. Undernourihed children conume little energy and other eential nutrient wherea over nourihed children become over weight leading to health problem and ocial tre. Thi would impact on the children academic performance in both public and private chool in Kenya The reearcher therefore eek to etablih the relationhip, if any, between type of chool and ucce of chool feeding program, and to determine the relationhip, if any, between chool feeding program and academic achievement among ECD children in Roret Diviion, Bureti Ditrict, Rift valley, Kenya. SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY Thi tudy wa concerned with chool feeding program and it impact on academic achievement in ECDE in Roret diviion, Bureti ditrict in Kenya. The repondent of interet in thi reearch were 4 head 408

3 teacher in ECDE Centre in Roret Diviion Bureti Ditrict, Kenya. The tudy had limitation whereby ome repondent were upicion and fearful in the initial tage depite the aurance given to them. However, thi wa overcome by re- auring the repondent of confidentiality of information given, etablihing of rapport with the repondent, and repone that were unreliable and invalid were tackled by triangulating the data through interview and obervation. MATERIAL AND METHODS The reearcher employed a cro-ectional urvey deign. The deign wa conidered appropriate becaue it involved collecting data at one point in time within a chool term acro participant in Bureti Ditrict in Kericho, Kenya. Data collected through cro-ectional urvey emerge from a ample and can be generalized to a wider population (Cohen et. al, 004). The urvey wa uitable becaue it led to the ue of different method to collect data. In order to analyze the objective outlined in thi tudy, the reearcher conducted a cro-ectional urvey in 4 chool. The target population conited of all ECD centre in Roret Diviion, and the 4 Head teacher. In November 009 there were 80 ECD centre in Roret Diviion compriing of 60 public ECD centre and 0 private centre. Bryman (004) hold the view that in ocial reearch, reearcher handle many variable which may impact on the data analyi proce. In line with the variable for the tudy a total of 4 chool (0%) were elected. Stratified ampling method wa ued to elect 8 private chool and 16 public chool. The chool were categorized on the bai of availability of SFP. Once chool had been elected, the acceible Head teacher, contituted the tudy ample. Quetionnaire Both tructured and untructured quetionnaire were ued in the tudy. The tructured quetionnaire had cloe-ended quetion which limit the type of anwer the repondent can provide. Structured quetionnaire generate repone which can be ubjected to tatitical analyi (Cohen et al, 004). The quetionnaire for Head teacher, were written in Englih. Interview Schedule The reearcher employed the ue of interview to the Head teacher to etablih academic achievement among ECD children. Peronal interview wa eay to adminiter and a great deal of information wa gathered ince the repondent could eek for clarification on what the reearcher wa aking in relation to the impact of SFP on academic achievement at ECDE level. Obervation checklit The reearcher oberved the kind of food and number of time that the children are upplied with food. Obervation wa done in two public chool that had SFP and private chool that had SFP but varied on the type of food given to the children. Pupil in chool with SFP cored higher than thoe without SFP and the relationhip between SFP and academic achievement wa oberved. Academic Performance Tet Academic performance of children in ample chool wa meaured through adminitering tet to them. The tet were thoe et by ubject panel in educational zone a end of mid term examination. It wa undertood that different chool et their own examination but a common paper wa done by all learner in the introductory cla to determine the relationhip, if any, between SFP and academic achievement of ECD learner. Academic achievement tet were the ingle meaurement of the dependent variable. Participant were rated on their performance in the following learning activity area namely creativity, language activity, mathematic activity and reading activity. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS Type of School and School Feeding Program The objective of the tudy wa to determine the relationhip between type of chool and availability of SFP. From the tudy a total of 16 public chool and 8 private chool, all the private chool and out of 16 public chool had chool feeding program, were tudied a ummarized in the Table 1 below. The chool with SFP compried of 41.7% and thoe without the program compried of 58.%. The chool with SFP compried of two public chool and eight private chool, however chool without SFP compried of 14 public chool. Table 1: Type of School and School Feeding Program (n = 4) Frequency Percent With SFP Without SFP SFP % Public Private The chi quare tatitic howed that the SFP had a ignificant relationhip and aociation with the type of chool, X = (4.556), (10) p<0.05 and X = (6.89), (1) p<0.05 repectively a ummarized in Table. 409

4 Table : Chi-Square Statitic Showing the Relationhip between Type of School SFP (n = 4) Value df Aymp. Sig. (- ided) Pearon Chi-Square 4.556(a) Linear-by-Linear Aociation Key: df degree of freedom The type of chool had a negative relationhip with the chool feeding program, (r = -0.87, p<0.001) a hown in table. The correlation analyi howed that the type of chool had negative influence on chool Table : Correlation between the Type of School and School Feeding Program (n =4) Type of chool School feeding program Pearon Correlation -0.87(**) Sig. (-tailed) Source: reearch Data (011) ** Correlation i ignificant at the 0.01 level (- tailed). Finding on School Feeding Programme and Academic Achievement On the objective to determine the relationhip between SFP and academic achievement of ECD learner, the academic performance of chool with and without SFP were different a hown in the table 4 below. The private chool with SFP had the highet mean core of 68.1, the public chool with SFP had a mean of 60 and the public chool without SFP had the leat mean of From thee reult it how that the chool with SFP had the highet performance compared to thoe without SFP. Table 4: Relationhip between SFP and Academic Performance Type of chool SFP Mean Private With 68.1 Public With 60.0 Public Without 17.9 The type of chool had a poitive relationhip with the academic performance and negatively related to chool feeding program at 1% level of ignificance, (r = 94, p<0.001 and r = -0.87, p<0.001 repectively) table 5. The academic performance had a negative relationhip with the chool feeding program, (r = , p<0.001). The correlation analyi howed that the type of chool had a poitive influence on the academic performance of the chool and academic performance had a negative influence on chool Table 5: Correlation between the type of School and the Academic Performance (n = 4) Type of Academic chool performance Academic performance School feeding program Pearon Correlation Sig. (- tailed) Pearon Correlation Sig. (- tailed) 0.94(**) (**) 0.87(**) ** Correlation i ignificant at the 0.01 level (- tailed). The cro tabulation reult howed that there wa a ignificant aociation between the academic performance, the type of chool and chool feeding program, p<0.05 a hown in the table 6 below. From the analyi the academic performance had a ignificant relationhip with the type of chool X = (4.00), (15, 1) p>0.05. The academic performance had no ignificant relationhip with the chool feeding program X = (4.00), (15, 1) p>0.05. From the Chi quare reult there i no ignificant relationhip between the SFP and academic performance. Table 6: Chi Square Reult on Academic Performance Value df Aymp. Sig. Type of chool Pearon Chi- Square Linear-by- Linear Aociation School feeding Pearon Chiprogram Square Linear-by- Linear Aociation (-ided) One Way Analyi of Variance (ANOVA) Comparion of mean wa done uing the one way analyi of variance on the variable under the tudy Table 7. The F ratio wa ued for comparion of mean between chool with and without SFP. The F ratio i the meaure of variation and when it value i le than 1 then it repreent non ignificant effect. The oberved F ratio for type of chool wa ignificant to the SFP F (1, ) = 51., P <.5). The Academic performance had ignificant effect on SFP, (F (1, ) = 1.114, P<.05). From the reult it howed that there wa ignificant effect of chool feeding program on type of chool and academic performance. 410

5 Table 7: One way analyi of Variance (ANOVA) Type of chool Academic performan ce Betwe en Within Sum of Square D f Mean Square Total 5. Betwe en 91 Within Total F Sig Type of School and Succe of School Feeding Program The chool without SFP were more than thoe with SFP. All the private chool had SFP. The chi quare tatitic howed a ignificant relationhip between the type of chool and SFP. The type of chool had a negative relationhip with the chool feeding program. The correlation analyi howed that the type of chool had negative influence on chool School Feeding Program and Academic Achievement The chool with SFP had the highet performance compared to thoe without SFP. The private chool with SFP had the highet mean followed by the public chool with SFP and finally the public chool without SFP had the leat mean core. The type of chool had a poitive relationhip with the academic performance and negatively related to chool feeding program at 1% level of ignificance. The correlation analyi howed that the type of chool had a poitive influence on the academic performance of the chool and academic performance had a negative influence on chool SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION The ummary, concluion, and recommendation are a follow; Type of School and Succe of School Feeding Program The chool without SFP were more than thoe with SFP. All the private chool had SFP. The chi quare tatitic howed a ignificant relationhip between the type of chool and SFP. The type of chool had a negative relationhip with the chool feeding program. The correlation analyi howed that the type of chool had negative influence on chool School Feeding Program and Academic Achievement The chool with SFP had the highet performance compared to thoe without SFP. The private chool with SFP had the highet mean followed by the public chool with SFP and finally the public chool without SFP had the leat mean core. The type of chool had a poitive relationhip with the academic performance and negatively related to chool feeding program at 1% level of ignificance. The correlation analyi howed that the type of chool had a poitive influence on the academic performance of the chool and academic performance had a negative influence on chool CONCLUSION The chool without SFP were more than thoe with SFP. All the private chool had SFP wherea two out of ixteen public chool had School Feeding Programme. Thi how that the type of chool determined availability of School Feeding Programme (SFP), parent in private chool participated in SFP while thoe in public were low income earner and could not participate fully due to limited reource. The chool with SFP had the highet performance compared to thoe without SFP. The private chool with SFP had the highet mean core followed by the public chool with SFP and finally the public chool without SFP had the leat mean core. Thi how that the type of chool poitively influenced their academic performance. RECOMMENDATION From the tudy the following recommendation were drawn. a) There i need for introduction of SFP in all public chool ince chool with the programme ha been noted to have good performance. b) There i need for all takeholder to improve performance in public chool depite the unavailability of School Feeding Programme (SFP). REFERENCE Ahmed A.U and K. Billah (1994): Food for Education program in Bangladeh. Bryman A (004): Social Reearch\Method ( nd Ed). New York Oup. Bwibo N. et. al. (1989): Cognitive Abilitie of Kenyan Children in relation to Nutrition. 411

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