KZN Education withdraws circular with reduced feeding scheme budget
The Department of Education in KZN has cancelled plans to reduce the budget for the National School Nutrition Programme in the 2024/25 financial year.
This comes after the department on Tuesday withdrew a circular it had released on plans to cut down the number of learners receiving meals under the programme.
Spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi says the circular that cited crippling funding issues as the reason behind the drastic and painful cuts has been withdrawn in total.
"It had issued to our schools which was speaking to the issue of a reduction of five percent in terms of provision of school nutrition to our children due to financial constraints. If this had caused any confusion we are not withdrawing the circular providing clarity and there should be no confusion moving forward."
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Meanwhile, Action SA's KZN Premier candidate Zwakele Mncwango has expressed concern on the issues mentioned in the withdrawn circular.
He says the department should have anticipated and planned for the growth of learners depending on the free meals.
"One expects the budget to be allocated especially to this important programme because we know that most learners are going to school with an empty stomach. Now if the department says they can't afford to support some of the learners is a concern. We may find ourselves as a province going back to what we saw last year."
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