Child participation in the evaluation of the school nutrition programme: a case study of eight grade 4 learners in Mqanduli village in the Eastern Cape

Abstract

This study focuses on child participation in the evaluation of the school nutrition programme. It investigates the SNP exclusively from Grade 4 learners’ perspectives. The main significance of it is that many evaluations of the SNP focus on other stakeholders’ perspectives. The study intends to explore effective methodologies and tools for conducting research with children. Furthermore, this study seeks to contribute to the existing literature on the importance of children’s participation in matters concerning their lives. The study seeks to explore three research questions. Firstly, it seeks to explore how Grade 4 learners describe the purpose of the SNP. Secondly, how do the Grade 4 learners describe their day to day experiences of the SNP. Lastly, how do the Grade 4 learners describe the impact of the SNP. Through this research experience, the study hopes to illuminate recommendations to better align policy and programme design with stated intentions. The study is qualitative, and based on a case study design. The central analysis focuses on eight case studies, each representing the experience of one Grade 4 learner, within the context of two selected schools in the rural areas of Mqanduli. This study underscores the literature on school nutrition programming. Despite severe implementation shortfalls, learners still consider the nutrition programme to be an important aspect of their school day. The experience and analysis of learners in regard to the SNP was relatively consistent. Learners consistently experience the SNP as contributing to temporary hunger alleviation thus enhancing learning capacity. Furthermore, they regarded the SNP to have had positive impact towards enhancing their school attendance and punctuality, and mediation between their home and the school life. The study supports the literature that suggests that, while school nutrition programming represents one of the most promising policy tools for serving the rural poor, unless it is carefully designed to reflect the known requirements of school feeding, the results can be limited. This study further suggests that if a programme is poorly implemented, it runs the risk of undermining the intended policy aims rather than contributing towards their attainment. The study further acknowledges child participation in policy and programme decisions concerning them. The study concludes by making a number of policy and implementation suggestions that may better align policy and practice to the specific context of the rural poor in Mqanduli. While these case studies are too few to suggest generalisability of results, it is hoped that these recommendations will be studied for wider application.