Rwanda is looking to leverage on the School Data Management System (SDMS), to monitor the allocation of funding used for the school feeding programme, a senior government official revealed.
The Minister of State in Charge of Primary and Secondary Education, Gaspard Twagirayezu, explained that the new system allows head teachers to record all their students.
The Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning can then easily access the system which allows them to know the amount of money they allocate to the schools.
$6.7 million is expected to be spent in the school feeding programme in the second term of the academic year that started on January 10.
According to the United Nations World Food Programme, 66 million primary school-age children go hungry every day, with 23 million hungry children in Africa alone.
The program, launched in 1996, aims to address inequalities and expand access to educational opportunities to disadvantaged children, particularly orphans and vulnerable learners.
To expand the program, the government introduced a school feeding policy to refine approaches and quality of education delivered by a decentralized feeding program.
CU/as/APA