Bangladesh signs agreement with WFP to expand school feeding programme

Bangladesh has signed an agreement with the World Food Programme (WFP) for expanding and improving school feeding programme for the country's primary school students.

The agreement was inked in an event attended by Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen, reports UNB.

Bangladesh government introduced a school feeding programme in 2010 and now some 2.3 million students of 15,000 primary schools in 104 upazilas are getting free meals.

Under the new agreement, the school feeding programme will be expanded to more than 150 upazilas, raising the number of beneficiaries to 3.7 million students. Besides, fruits, milk, bread, eggs and other nutritious foods will be served instead of fortified biscuits.

Thanks to the feeding programme, the dropout rate has declined by 7.5 per cent and the enrolment rate has increased by 14 per cent in the primary schools, said Momen.

Moreover, Bangladesh has become the 85th member of the School Meals Coalition at an event here on Monday.

Bangladesh Ambassador to Italy Md Shameem Ahsan and PM’s speechwriter Md Nazrul Islam were present.