School Feeding Programme in Nigeria: The Nutritional Status of Pupils in a Public Primary School in Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria

Abstract

About 7.3 million children are estimated to be out of school in Nigeria; majority of them are girls. The Federal Gov-ernment school feeding programme is to provide one meal per school day to all primary school pupils in Nigeria with the objectives of improving the health of school age children, increase their enrolment, retention and completion rate in the primary school. The nutritional status of 160 pupils (80 boys and 80 girls) of a selected public primary school in Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria was assessed using anthropometric parameters. Meals were collected and analyzed for nutrient composition and compared to the requirement for their age group. The mid-arm circumference (MAC) ranged between 15 and 21 mm and the body mass index, (BMI) was within the WHO reference standard for healthy children. The crude protein (CP) content of the served foods varied between 12% and 28%. The average intake of amino acids per meal ranged between 122 and 684 mg, vitamins from 0.1 to 0.8 mg while mineral intake varied from 2.7 to 85 mg. The protein digestibility corrected amino acid score varied between 50% and 114%. These results indicated that the feeding programme has greatly improved the nutrition status of these children. The continuation of the programme would go a long way to preventing malnutrition among the public school children.