By Theodorah Mawasha
MEDINGEN-The department of Education provided food parcels to children who would usually receive free school meals. The new system began when the schools re-opened in February.
According to one school principal, the food hampers were delivered to the schools as part of the government feeding scheme before the lockdown was implemented in March 2020.
Meanwhile, some parents in Medingen Primary School under Greater Letaba Municipality, alleged that their children were not given the same food items as other pupils from other schools. One of the parents who noticed the difference in the food packages, Mokgadi Modjadji who usually collects her child from school, said she noticed that some items were missing in her child’s package.
“After discovering that there was no tinned fish in my child’s package, I immediately alerted another parent and we stood and watched as the children were leaving the school. Indeed, true to our suspicion the tinned fish was missing from some learner’s. We resorted to approaching the school with other parents the next day to demand answers.” she reflected.
However, according to the school principal Matome kgatla, no parent has been to the school and no communication through the school governing body has reached his office. “I do not have any recollection of missing food items or parents coming to the school to address the matter. The school received food hampers for thirteen days and every child received the same food item. The schools governing body would normally handle this kind of a problem but I honestly don’t know what you are talking about. No parent has spoken to me regarding this” Kgatla stated.
Meanwhile, other parents confirmed that the past week their children received more parcels and all is in order. “I must also put on record that this was not food parcels but food hampers. Food parcels are the ones we are receiving now due to COVID-19 strain as a relief to families and the items are not always the same” the principal Kgatle concluded.
The department of education had referred the matter to the circuit management for further investigation.
