Budget cuts will affect nutrition program

08 December 2009

AMMAN - A JD50 million cut in the Ministry of Education's budget for the year 2010 will affect the School Nutrition Program (SNP), Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Walid Maani said.

In an interview with The Jordan Times, Maani noted that because of the financial constraints implied in the new budget, "we have to cut down the number of students who are covered under the program".

The ministry's budget for the coming year is expected to decrease from a total of JD547 million (JD482 million in current expenditure and JD65 million in capital expenditure) in 2009 to JD497 million in the 2010 state budget (capital expenditure will see a cut by JD30 million and current expenses will be reduced by JD20 million from the present year's figures), according to top officials at the ministry.

"We think it is a very important program. It had some problems in the past... but we stopped giving materials that are subject to bacteria contamination; we give only biscuits which are fortified with vitamins and fruits," the minister explained.

"We discovered that a lot of students go to school because they want to have the meal, which indicates that they want to have it because they feel it is necessary," Maani said, adding that meals distributed in schools have become an incentive for students in some impoverished areas.

Despite the expected cuts, he noted that the meal will be still distributed in schools in underprivileged areas including the Jordan Valley and Northern Badia.

The SNP initially started in 1999 after national surveys revealed serious health deficiencies among needy schoolchildren - particularly vitamins A and D, and iron, which affect learning abilities. The SNP first took off with 10,000 students at a cost of JD773,000.

Last year, it covered an estimated 460,000 students in public schools at a cost of some JD20 million.