The Tau Matan Forum Organization (FTM) will monitor the school feeding program in all schools within the country, pending an agreement due to be signed with the Ministry of Education (ME) in February.
“We have been invited by the ME to work together to develop a policy for the implementation of the school feeding program,” Kids Protection FTM project manager Honorio Almeida Soares said in Kaikoli, Dili.
“We have a plan which will be presented to the ME for us to further develop the distribution and management processes of the school feeding program policy,” he said.
He said the preparation process was now underway.
The organizations that will sign the agreement with the ME are FOKUPERS, Belun, the Youth National Center of Timor-Leste, the Human Rights Ombudsman, Education Net of Timor-Leste, and the Coalition for Education as well as FTM.
Member of Parliament (MP) Leonel Marçal said the budget for the school feeding program was still inadequate, despite a recent increase which saw the allocation per child rise from 15 cents per day to 25 cents per day.
“For a person who manages the money properly, 25 cents will be enough but a less scrupulous person can take some of that 25 cents,” he said.
He said the Ministry of Education should control the money as much as possible to minimise the opportunity for manipulation.
In response to the concern Minister of Education Bendito Freitas said the ministry had met with the general directors to create a policy to govern the management of the school feeding program.
He said the program’s budget increase should mean children no longer went unfed.
