The Department of Education (DepEd) expressed readiness to support private partners, local government units, and communities to help schools provide a better learning environment for their students.
The statement came after EcoWaste Coalition, a non-governmental organization promoting a safe environment for children, urged Education Secretary Armin Luistro last week to come up with a national healthy school program to promote healthy and sustainable values and practices, especially in preparatory, primary, elementary, and secondary schools.
Luistro explained that the DepEd continues to directly address the problem of poor nutrition among public school students because it "results to absenteeism, poor school performance and eventual dropping out."
Among these programs is the School-Based Food and Nutrition Program of the Southeast Asia Ministers of Education Organization Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture and the University of the Philippines Los Banos.
Under the program school, Luistro explained that the gardens will serve as an incentive for poor parents to send their children to school because they can have access to nutritious food that they can bring home for household consumption.
"By raising the vegetable themselves, students will have experiential learning in food production and nutrition," Luistro said.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
DepEd to help address nutrition woes of kids
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