The Role of Teachers, Cultural Elders, and the Interreligious Council of Uganda in Instituting Learners' Lunch Meals in Christian and Muslim-Founded Public Schools

Abstract

The paper examines the roles that classroom teachers, cultural elders, and the Interreligious Council of Uganda can play to sustainably introduce learners' lunch meals in Christian- and Muslim-founded public schools. To respond to the thesis, a contemporary historical analysis methodology that focuses on examining recent past events to align them with the present circumstances was followed. Study findings indicate that in Uganda, 66 % of the learners do not access school lunch meals, a condition that has resulted in massive school dropouts.  Failure of parents to provide school lunch meals is attributed to:  a) the life survival of most rural based households in Uganda is below the poverty line, b) education policies in Uganda do not mandate teachers, religious bodies, and cultural leaders to empower learners to demand for their school feeding rights, c) most parents are ignorant of the consequences associated with their negligence to meet the basic life necessities of their children, d) foundation bodies have roles to play in solving the challenges that affect schooling feeding but education policies do not spell out measurable programme outputs that can be progressively executed, monitored, and evaluated using government legislated tools, e) remuneration and punitive lines do not exist that demand religious bodies to play their roles in ensuring that education is treated as a serious project that must be accessed by young people, and f) the programme outputs of Interreligious Council of Uganda  in cementing Christian-Muslim relationships, promoting African collective responsibility, and ensuring that such connections support school lunch meals programme, are not visible in the primary and secondary schools. It was recommended that education policies that spell out the roles of teachers, parents, religious bodies, and cultural leaders in supporting cultural context school feeding programmes need to be crafted and implemented by the government of Uganda.