The Gombe State Ministry of Education has dismissed allegations of underfeeding students at Government Girls Mega College, Doma, attributing complaints by some final-year students to disruptions caused by the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination timetable.
Some Senior Secondary School Three students sitting the ongoing examination had reportedly complained of missing meals and spending long hours without food during the examination period.
The students alleged that the examination schedule had prevented them from accessing meals at the usual times, leaving them hungry for extended periods.
Reacting to the allegations in a telephone interview with our correspondent, the Special Assistant on Media to the Gombe State Ministry of Education, Saidu Malala, insisted that there was no shortage of food in the school and that students were fed regularly.
According to him, the state government recently distributed food supplies to boarding schools across the state to ensure adequate feeding of students.
Malala said, “Students get food in the morning, afternoon and later in the evening around 5 p.m. Recently, we distributed non-perishable food items to boarding schools. As you know, we have 20 boarding schools across the state.”
Malala maintained that the ministry had verified the claims with relevant school authorities and found no evidence of underfeeding.
“As far as I’m concerned, we don’t have any case of underfeeding. I have reached out to the Director of School Services because schools are directly under him, as well as the principal of the school, and I was convinced based on what they have said,” he added.
The ministry’s spokesman explained that the situation arose because the SS3 students were sitting for the ongoing WAEC examinations, whose timetable often clashes with the school’s feeding schedule.
“What happened is that the SS3 students are currently writing their final-year examination, that is WAEC. It comes with a timetable. Actually, what happened is that SS3 students start examinations by 10 a.m., and that’s the time for the paper.
“Unfortunately, they can’t eat then until they are through with the first paper.
“Secondly, their second paper is around 12 noon or 1 pm, and they can’t receive their lunch till 5 p.m. It’s because of the examination schedule that they don’t receive their lunch until 5 p.m., but they receive dinner around 6:30 p.m.,” he explained.
Malala further noted that the school’s large population made it difficult to prepare separate meals for a specific category of students during the examination period.
“Doma has a population of 1,834 students, and SS3 is about 500. So what they usually do is cook the food at once, and for them to cook separately may be difficult because ingredients are usually measured for particular meals. It’s going to be tedious,” he said.
