This indicator examines if the national law or policies have provision to provide free school meals in schools including ECCE centres.
Convention on the Rights of the Child, Articles 6.2, 18.2, 24.2 (a) (c) and 29 (a), General comment No. 7 (paras. 10, 12 and 27), General Comment No. 15 (paras. 45 and 46).
Specific Reference to ECCE :
Tashkent Declaration and Commitments to Action for Transforming Early Childhood Care and Education (Guiding principles and strategies for transformational ECCE, para. 2.iv): ‘Ensure all children receive nurturing care: Early childhood is a crucial time for physical and socio-emotional growth and development. Nurturing care encompasses the needs for good health, optimal nutrition, security and safety, early learning and responsive caregiving by primary care providers.’
Childhood hunger and malnutrition can have devastating impact, affecting children's overall growth and cognitive development and adversely affect their learning abilities. According to the World Food Programme, millions of children either go to schools on an empty stomach or do not go to schools due to hunger. In particular, girls and those who live in conflict affected countries miss schools as they have to support their parents due to poverty and therefore hunger has a direct correlation in decreasing the school enrolment rate. In such a scenario, as the Committee on the Rights of the Child emphasise ‘School feeding is desirable to ensure all pupils have access to a full meal every day, which can also enhance children’s attention for learning and increase school enrolment.’ (General Comment No. 15, para. 46)
While school feeding is recommended for all levels of education in schools, it is key for ECCE. As highlighted by the Tashkent Declaration (Premabule, para. 9), ‘ECCE recognizes the holistic nature of child development, encompassing early cognitive and social development, which requires foundational learning, responsive care, nutrition, health, safety, protection, and play.’ Therefore, the committee on the Rights of Child (General comment No. 7, para. 27) urges States to take all possible measures to create conditions that promote the well-being of all young children during this critical phase of their lives. It emphasises (General Comment No.15, para. 45) that ‘adequate nutrition and growth monitoring in early childhood are particularly important.’ Further, it clarifies (General Comment No. 7, para. 10) that Article 6 encompasses all aspects of development and that a young child's health and psycho-social well-being are in many respects interdependent and affirms that the 'highest attainable standard of health care and nutrition during their early years' enables children to enjoy a healthy start in life (Article 24), which is vital for overall physical, cognitive, social and emotional development.
To know more about School Feeding or School meals, refer to:
World Food Programme at https://www.wfp.org/school-meals
School Meal Coalition at https://schoolmealscoalition.org/
Note that laws / legislative provisions will be more protective than policies. For more information see our webpage ‘What information to look at’ and chapter 6 of the RTE / UNESCO Right to Education handbook.