Maryam Nawaz Started The Largest School Nutrition Program

Last updated on November 5th, 2024 at 03:39 pm

On September 5, 2024, Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif launched the largest school nutrition program in Pakistan, which rallies against malnutrition among the school children of Punjab. Branded as the Chief Minister Primary School Nutrition Program, this goes a long way toward ensuring health and improving educational outcomes among children across the region. It aspires to provide daily nutritional milk to over 400,000 school-going in 3,527 schools of Dera Ghazi Khan, Rajanpur, and Muzaffargarh.

She expressed her keen thoughts as she was very surprised by the energetic welcome of the locals, “I am amazed to find that the kids here know me well. The love I received today is beyond words.

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By initiating this plan from Dera Ghazi Khan and not from the high-level city of Lahore or Rawalpindi, Nawaz underlines her premise of grassroots development. She admitted to the woes the educational system of Punjab faces “With thousands of schools and millions of kids in Punjab, resources are limited. Better times are coming, and I strive to meet the nutritional needs of our little ones.”

اس منصوبے کو ڈیرہ غازی خان سے شروع کر کے لاہور یا راولپنڈی کے اعلیٰ شہر سے نہیں، نواز نے نچلی سطح پر ترقی کی اپنی بنیاد کو اجاگر کیا۔ انہوں نے پنجاب کے تعلیمی نظام کو درپیش مشکلات کا اعتراف کیا “پنجاب میں ہزاروں اسکولوں اور لاکھوں بچوں کے ساتھ وسائل محدود ہیں۔ بہتر وقت آنے والا ہے، اور میں اپنے بچوں کی غذائی ضروریات کو پورا کرنے کی کوشش کر رہی ہوں۔

Background of the Initiative

The Chief Minister launched School Nutrition scheme because there was a dire need to eliminate malnutrition among many children in Punjab, impeding growth and brain development. She felt this dire need when, on a school visit, teachers told her that many children go to school without breakfast, which makes them faint, and they cannot focus on their studies. That was the motivation for devising a plan to at least provide one healthy meal to the kids.

Objectives of the School Nutrition Program

Main goals of the School Nutrition scheme:

Combating Malnutrition: How to overcome the high rate of malnutrition among school-going in southern Punjab.

Improved Learning Outcomes: Helps in improving the cognitive functions among the students, which has relevance to their various energy levels, hence improving academic performance.

Health Awareness: Cultivate health and nutrition amongst students and their families.

Future Actions School Nutrition Program

It is a pilot plan scaling that will be done in other districts of Punjab subsequently. The government is committed to seeing health and education for all school-going ones, determinately continuing efforts to realize this goal. The state is also committed to providing quality education and healthcare to all little ones, irrespective of their background or socio-economic status.

Benefits of School Nutrition Program

The Chief Minister School Nutrition Program is aimed at our efforts to ensure better health and education in our school. Improved cognitive functioning and energy levels are observed. It combats malnutrition and supports healthy growth and development, boosting immunity, enhancing academic performance, improving regular attendance, and reducing dropout rates with daily nutritious milk packets.

Implementation Strategy

It will be implemented in the three southern districts of Punjab, namely Dera Ghazi Khan, Rajanpur, and Muzaffargarh. It would particularly include:

Daily Milk Distribution: Each child from Nursery to Class 5 shall be provided with a healthy packet of milk each day for consumption quantity being 175ml.

Recycling Drive: Students in the schools will collect used milk packets, and the money received for the recycling will be reinvested into school resources.

A Pilot Project: Its success will be used to roll out the scale-up in other districts.

Expected impact on children’s health

The school nutrition program will no doubt enhance the target children’s health status.

Better nutrient intake: Drinking milk daily in life helps absorb important vitamins and minerals hence, nutritional deficiencies are replaced.

Improved immunity: Regular consumption of healthy milk helps strengthen a child’s immune system. This will reduce the incidence of illness and avoid other deficiencies.

Growth and development: It should support healthy growth patterns and cognitive development, which are very important in child development.

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Some Challenges faced by the implementation of the scheme

Various challenges have been determined that may affect the implementation of the School Meals in Punjab as envisioned by Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz. Key issues: 

• Financial constraints Among the associated constraints, finance heads the list. More than 400,000 children are to be given fortified milk daily, which requires huge funds. The fact that this program is expensive to run in practice and its long-term financial viability may be seriously questioned, although urgent and essential in any battle against malnutrition, which is what the government itself has referred to it as. 
• Logistical Issues The logistics of dispersing cartons of milk among the thousands of schools in these three districts are clumsily organized, to say the least. Timely transportation and quality at the school doorstep, integrally connected with the transport mechanism, is crucial for the success of the entire program.
• Milk quality supplied, The appropriateness of the quality of milk supplied  this is to be reliable and yield the desired results. There is a possibility that the milk provided may pose a quality and safety issue and therefore consumption by children. It is therefore recommended that suppliers are certified according to health and safety standards to avoid health complications among students. 
• Staff shortages: Such a huge program implementation further depends on a sufficient number of staff in schools to oversee and monitor the distribution of the nutritional program. The schools are, at present, facing deficiencies in different types of resources and other gaps that make them underprepared for carrying out the child nutritional program successfully.
• Training in all interested parties will be an important player in ensuring the plan is a successful interaction with the community Other two elements that are involved in the successful execution of the program include community attraction and providing parental support. 
• Participation rates in these programs may remain low, especially if parents are unaware of such a scheme or not supportive of it. The challenges, on the other hand, extend beyond simply publicizing the intervention awareness of and support from the community.
• Monitoring and Evaluation A well-structured monitoring and evaluation system is necessary to ascertain the impacts of it on the health and education outcomes of children. Lack of proper monitoring will result in difficulty judging how effective the project has been and difficult adjustment. The governments should ensure that mechanisms are put in place for monitoring the progress and receiving feedback from schools and families.
• The entire success of it is solely based on the efficiency of the milk supply and its nutritional supplements supply chain. Any interference in the supply chain will result in shortages or delays in feeding the students. There are risks involved where the government needs to develop trust relationships with the suppliers. 
• Sustainability Issues  As this was originally a pilot project, there were some question marks over the sustainability of this. In this respect, one long-term strategy that needs to be developed by the governments involves sustained funding and support for the program beyond the pilot phase. 
• This may also include seeking additional resources from NGOs and the private sector. Meeting Nutritional Needs Although the focus of the program is the provision of milk, the general nutritional needs of the child should be put into consideration.

پنجاب میں وزیر اعلیٰ مریم نواز کی قیادت میں اسکول میلز پروگرام کو کئی اہم چیلنجز کا سامنا ہے۔ مالی وسائل کی کمی ایک بڑا مسئلہ ہے، کیونکہ روزانہ 4 لاکھ سے زیادہ بچوں کو مضبوط دودھ فراہم کرنے کے لیے خطیر رقم درکار ہے، جو پروگرام کی طویل مدتی پائیداری کے لیے خطرہ بن سکتی ہے۔ نقل و حمل کی غیر مؤثر تنظیم اور دودھ کی معیار کی یقین دہانی جیسے لوجسٹک مسائل بھی پروگرام کو پیچیدہ بناتے ہیں۔ دودھ کی حفاظت کے حوالے سے خدشات ہیں، اس لیے سپلائرز کی صحت اور حفاظت کے معیارات کے مطابق تصدیق ضروری ہے تاکہ طلباء کو صحت کے مسائل سے بچایا جا سکے۔ اسکولوں میں عملے کی کمی کے باعث دودھ کی تقسیم کو مؤثر طریقے سے نگرانی کرنا مشکل ہو جاتا ہے۔ کمیونٹی اور والدین کی حمایت ضروری ہے، لیکن اگر آگاہی کم ہو تو شرکت کی شرح بھی کم ہو سکتی ہے۔ پروگرام کی کامیابی کو جانچنے اور ضروری تبدیلیاں کرنے کے لیے مؤثر نگرانی اور جانچ کے نظام لازمی ہیں۔ پائلٹ مرحلے کے بعد پائیداری کو یقینی بنانے کے لیے طویل مدتی فنڈنگ اور ممکنہ طور پر این جی اوز اور نجی شعبے کے ساتھ تعاون کی ضرورت ہوگی۔

Future Plans for Expansion

Chief Minister promised to extend it to more than three districts:

Scaling Up: If found successful, this will be scaled up into other regions within Punjab as part of taking up the battle against malnutrition on a full scale.

Inclusion of Other Nutritional Foods: Future versions of it may include other forms of nutritious foods to add variety to the diets of kids.

Conclusion

School Nutrition scheme initiated by Maryam Nawaz, the Chief Minister School Nutrition Program, brings a turning point in the combat against child malnutrition in Punjab. This nutrition plan provides coverage to over 400,000 children with daily nutritious milk, thus ensuring improved health and education performance. This would address not just their immediate nutritional needs but also lay down the foundation for a generation that is both healthier and more educated. A commitment to further expansion of the project, including community involvement, gives this a truly remarkable potential for being even more successful over the long run.