The organisation says the National Schools Nutrition Programme normally provides meals to over nine million learners every day but was halted when schools closed on 18 March.
Equal Education and the school governing bodies of two Limpopo schools on Friday launched an urgent court application against the Department of Basic Education and provincial education departments to compel the departments to provide meals for pupils.
“The NSNP normally provides meals to over nine million learners every day, but was halted when schools closed on 18 March, jeopardising the food security of these learners and exacerbating the severe hardship experienced within their households,” EE said in a statement.
“The closure of the NSNP impacts not only on the health and education of learners, but has knock-on effects on entire families – in a context of heightened unemployment and loss of income due to the nationwide lockdown, many families are struggling to put food on the table. These families urgently require the NSNP to be reinstated in order to meet their children’s basic nutritional needs and ensure that they are able to buy other desperately needed necessities in the home,” the statement read.
“The DBE’s Standard Operating Procedures on Covid-19 make provision for the roll-out of NSNP to occur in a safe and hygienic manner. The DBE has provided no reasonable justification for its limitation of the NSNP to only Grades 7 and 12 learners,” the statement said.
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