The Relationship Between School Feeding Programmes And School Attendance And Enrolment Among Preschool Children In Chepalungu Sub-County, Bomet County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

Feeding programme may not increase food intake of targeted individuals

by 100 percent, but is provided to improve food consumption, encourage

school attendance, enrolment and learning. The provision of School

Feeding Programme (SFP) also may result in saving health care cost

among children. Despite the benefits that may be obtained from SFP, It is

not easy to administer and not provided in all pre-schools. In Kenya, the

implementation process of SFP has not yet been effectively carried out.

According to the new constitution, Early Childhood Development and

Education (ECDE) is under the management of County Governments, but

little has been done in the provision of ECDE services, SFP included. The

Programme faces challenges like lack of parental support, inadequate

funding and skilled personnel to sensitize on its importance. This study

therefore investigated the implementation of SFP in Early Childhood

Development (ECD) centres in Bomet County with a view to establish its

relationship on children’s enrolment and attendance in Chepalungu Subcounty.

This is because about 65% of children in Kenya do not attend preschool

Education and 57.7% do not attend school in Chepalungu, Bomet

County. Presumably the study sought to investigate the relationship

between SFP and school attendance and enrolment. The study was guided

by Abraham Maslow’s theory of hierarchy of needs and employed

descriptive survey design whereby the independent variable was feeding

programme while the dependent variables were pre-school attendance and

enrolment. Observation schedules, questionnaires for ECD teachers as well

as head teachers, interview schedule for Director of Education and

document analysis were used to collect data. Statistical Packages for Social

Sciences (SPSS) was used to organize and prepare data for analysis. The

findings revealed that there is relationship between SFP and children’s

school attendance and enrolment. This implies that there is a need to

provide SFP in Chepalungu Sub-County. Stakeholders that include the County government should work hand in hand to provide SFP in preschools.