Philippine E-Journals

Bridging Hunger and Learning: Evaluating Educational Impacts and Implementation Challenges of Mid-Day Meal Programs in Kathmandu Valley

Nirash Dulal | Boby J Thadathil

Discipline: Education

 

Abstract:

School Feeding Programs are increasingly viewed as a strategic approach to address child malnutrition and educational inequities. Acknowledging this importance, the Government of Nepal began the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) program from fiscal year 2077/2078 B.S. with the aim of improving attendance, educational outcomes, and students’ well-being. This study explores the educational impact of the MDM program and examines the barriers encountered by schools in its implementation. While the prior studies have only focused on the rural settings with abundant data and reports, this qualitative study has explored the program effectiveness in five selective community schools in Kathmandu Valley, which actively run the program with government funding. For the study, 15 purposively selected participants from 5 different schools were interviewed. Data were transcribed, translated, and coded, employing an inductive thematic analysis. The findings reveal that the program has contributed significantly to improved daily attendance, students’ retention, classroom engagement, students’ well-being, along the reduction in consumption of junk and packaged foods. However, barriers like insufficient funding for the program, lack of proper infrastructure and dining facilities, weak monitoring mechanisms, and inclusion of all the students have been the major barriers to running the program effectively. The study highlights the need for increased budget allocation, upgrades to infrastructure, robust monitoring, and expansion of the program to higher grades. These findings highlight the need for continued investment and better policies and their implementation to help the MDM program reach its full potential in improving both education and nutrition in Nepal.