CHHATRAPATI SHAHU JI MAHARAJ UNIVERSITY, KANPUR

FACULTY OF EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP, PLANNING AND ADMINISTRATION

Phd PROGRAM

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

By Ben Alexandre MPOZEMBIZI

Reg. no K/403573

TOPIC:

EXAMINING THE IMPACT OF HOMEGROWN SCHOOLFEEDING PROGRAM ON

LITERACY IMPROVEMENT IN RUTSIRO DISTRICT, RWANDA

July 2018
 ABSTRACT

Primary education is receiving much attention from governments of all countries and NGOs in recent
times. However, poverty and hunger serves as barriers to achieving the Education for All (EFA)
policy in Rwanda. To actualize the EFA in Rwanda, there was the introduction of some educational
intervention programmes such as the capitation grant and the school feeding. School feeding
programmes are safety net programmes as well as educational interventions ensuring that children
with poor parents are given at least a meal a day at school. In Home grown school feeding program
intervention (Rutsiro, Karongi, Nyaruguru and Nyamagabe districts), students get porridge and food
respectively. This thesis adopted the qualitative research method to investigate how Home grown
school feeding program contributes to literacy improvement in Rutsiro district, Rwanda. The findings
of this research will indicate that literacy in pupils has increased in 21 schools of this district. Parents’
decisions to enrol their children of school-going age irrespective of their social and economic status is
one of the key to contribute to the high rates of enrolment and participation in school which entails
literacy increase.

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 ABBREVIATIONS

EDPRS: Economic Development and Poverty Reduction strategy

EFA: Education for All

ESSP: Education sector strategic plan

ESWG: Education sector working group

GoR: Government of Rwanda

HGSF: Home Grown School Feeding

L3: Literacy, Language and Learning

MGD: MCGovern-Dole

MINAGRI: Ministry of Agriculture

MINEDUC: Ministry of Education

MINISANTE: Ministry of Health ( Ministere de la Sante)

REB: Rwanda Education Board

UN: United Nations

UNESCO: United Nations Educational, scientific and cultural organization

USAID: United State Agency for International Development

WFP: World Food Programme

WV: World Vision

1.1. BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE OF THE STUDY

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Rwanda is a nation focused on achieving long-term sustainable development. It is through hard work,
qualitative and quantitative education and new strategies, that these goals will be achieved. There are
priorities and musts in the journey to an intellectual, cultural and creative future; a future contrary to
the country’s historical events, which led to, the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

Being educated is to be literate. According to UNESCO (2008), literacy is “the ability to identify,
understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use printed and written materials associated
with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve
their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in their community and
wider society.”

More than 60 percent of the Rwandan Government’s annual budget is dedicated to the education
sector; proof that shows the recognition of its role in developing and harnessing the younger
generation.

In December 2009, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, emphasized that, “[…] imperative is the
education and enlightenment, at least of a critical mass of Rwandans, so that ignorance will never be
the cause of civil strife in this country again.”

Ariel and Will Durant were right when they said, “Education is the transmission of civilization.”
Being the most important element which is fundamental to education, literacy should be seen as a
significant part of sustainable economic and social transformation that leads to the type of
development, we all dream of and wish to have.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which include literacy improvement, are also
educationally geared mechanisms.

Some recent reports have criticized the new Rwandan education system. These reports mainly evince
the difficulties that most teachers are facing in the teaching and training of students in a new
language, themselves not having effectively learnt to read and write. The adaptation to facilitate
learner-centred teaching in an unfamiliar language of English, doubles their toil.

In her research report, Pamela Connell (2010) recognizes the power of curriculum in education,
calling it “a driver of social change and quality education.” Rwanda’s past education systems failed to

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recognize the role of curriculum in improving students’ and educators’ reading and writing skills.
Evidence of this is in Rwanda’s publishing systems. Poor communication skills build a steeper ladder
to climb for higher education students studying in journalism, media and more, especially in writing
them (The New Times, October 2011).

One cannot also deny the impact of cultural contexts to the failure of reading and writing in Rwanda.
As reading and writing have not been taught in a cultural context, people, especially the young, will
never understand and endorse the importance of literacy skills and their practices which are even key
to their comprehension. However, it is of great value to understand the importance of reading for
writing and vice-versa.

“If students are to make knowledge their own, they must struggle with the details, wrestle with the
facts, and rework raw information and dimly understood concepts into language they can
communicate to someone else. In short, if students are to learn, they must write,” a National
Commission on Writing in the United States noted in its 2006 report.

The Government of Rwanda, together with the private sector, should be urged to use literacy skills’
practices as significant elements to improve the quality of education. Such reforms should start with
nursery and lower primary that represent the future of Rwanda. Highlighted also are those literacy
skills of effective reading and writing, certain to improve in a cultural context. Hence, partnership of
Ministry of Education with the Ministry of Culture would be of great value.

The implementation of a curriculum policy which influences young people to enrich themselves by
learning to read with understanding and, write with skill and clarity, would not only be beneficial for
themselves and their families, but for the nation of Rwanda. Young people would learn in order to
preserve and enhance the record of humanity; to be productive members of a larger community; to be
good citizens and good ancestors to those who will follow after them (The New Times, October
2011).

Young people’s literacy skills determine the future of our educational outcome. These are however,
also in the hands of today’s parents. Parents, should have a responsibility to send to school,
encourage, and to participate and embrace the young generation in order for them to compete in a
global learning environment.

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In this respect, the Government of Rwanda places a strong emphasis on national policies and
programs for poverty reduction, food security and improvements in education and health. The
Government of Rwanda’s ‘Vision 2020’ aims ‘to improve socio-economic development through
equitable access to quality education’. The EDPRS2 (2013-2018) has a target of 11.5 percent
economic growth and the National Social Protection Strategy (2011) prioritizes development of the
social protection sector to ensure that, all poor and vulnerable people are guaranteed a minimum
income and access to core public services.

The GoR’s Education Sector Strategic Plan (2010-2015) supports the improvement of educational
quality. MINEDUC set up the Rwanda Education Board (REB) to achieve this and build the
capacities of teachers. The ESSP identifies school feeding as a key component of school health and
nutrition, outlining how nutrition will be addressed through the development of school gardening
programs, and school feeding programs. In addition, the HGSF policy (2013) sets out to use school
feeding to increase access to education, alleviate short-term hunger, improve learning capacity, and
improve children’s health and nutrition status among other objectives. The School Health and
Nutrition (SHN) policy (2013) states that ‘all Rwandan school children shall achieve their full
development potential, by studying in a healthy environment in child-friendly schools’. Its target is
that teachers should be trained on school health and nutrition and that students/peer educators should
also be trained and sensitized on SHN, and use health clubs in schools to disseminate their
knowledge. The main coordination body where education stakeholders including REB, the
government’s High Education Council, UN agencies, and NGOs coordinate education policy is the
Education Sector Working Group (ESWG), led by MINEDUC. The HGSF Steering Committee is
being established to coordinate HGSF.

MINEDUC, Save the Children, and World Vision are implementing Literacy Boost, a proven literacy
instruction methodology focused on improving children’s reading abilities. Literacy Boost is
currently improving the literacy of 195,000 children in grades 1-3 in 280 primary schools in central
Rwanda and will be scaled up using the McGovern-Dole (MGD) resources. MINEDUC also works
with USAID’s Literacy, Language, and Learning (L3) project 2012-2016, on improving the quality of
education. L3 conducts a range of educational activities.

In order to achieve the MGD strategic goals of improved literacy and increased use of health and
dietary practices, WFP has developed a project response in close collaboration with government

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partners, MINEDUC, MINAGRI, MINISANTE and with proposed sub-recipient WV, that is
complementing existing GoR and USG efforts as well as One UN and other donor activities. The
project now is supporting and expanding the GoR’s HGSF program by using this program as a
vehicle to achieve the MGD education and health objectives through a high quality package of
complementary education and health initiatives that address the challenge of low academic
achievement in primary schools. Targeting four districts (Rutsiro, Karongi, Nyaruguru and
Nyamagabe) with two types of school meals (lunch meal and porridge meal), this project reaches
83,000 children per year in 104 schools and is supporting 31 farmer groups to increase food supply to
schools. WV have a strong focus on engagement with communities on literacy. WFP build the
capacity of the government at national and district levels and the capacity of schools to fully manage
the HGSF program in the long-term. The project was supposed to respond to the above mentioned
needs through the activities focused in education and school feeding needs.

Therefore, this work will address the above issues through a selective review of the literature dealing
with the impact of Home grown school feeding program on literacy improvement in Rutsiro district
as one of the four targeted district in Rwanda.
Specifically, this work will review factors that are likely to influence students’ attendance,
attentiveness and quality of Literacy Instruction

1.2. RESEARCH PROBLEM STATEMENT

In areas of crisis, school feeding programs are a common strategy to improve children’s health,
increase students’ school attendance and retention and improve learning. Typically school feeding
programs are implemented by NGOs partnering with food-giving organizations like World Food
Program and government donors.

Barb Briggs (2008) says that there is much evidence to suggest that school feeding programs increase
enrolment and attendance in school, particularly amongst girls. Girls especially benefit from this, as
parents may feel there are sufficient income-transfer benefits (meaning the meal/food provided acts as
a form of income savings/benefit as they do not have to spend as much on food). Often, girls are not
encouraged to attend school due to cultural practices, beliefs about education and they are needed to
provide valuable labour and contribute to the household.

After 1994 genocide, primary schools in Rwanda had low attendance of pupils. This has been shown
through school attendance registers. Many reasons may be associated with that irregular attendance of
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learners in Rwandan primary schools: hunger and poverty in families, orphanhood, child-headed
households, traumatism of people and children included, some parents ‘imprisonment, delinquency of
some pupils due to lack of control and parenting on the side of parents, lack of sufficient teachers,
frequent absence of some teachers, low motivation and incompetence of teachers, deterioration of
infrastructures, etc.

However, some teachers claim that there is no influence of Home Grown School Feeding program on
literacy improvement.

Besides, in some countryside primary schools, high absenteeism and drop out are still persistent
despite the school feeding programme whereas schools in town without school feeding program do
not have such problem.

Therefore, with such conflicting situation, this study seeks to investigate the real impact of Home
Grown School Feeding program on literacy improvement in Rutsiro District, Rwanda.

1.3. LITERATURE REVIEW

Many researches have been conducted to this topic but they did not tackle it clearly. Therefore, I
cannot confirm that this research is the only one about School feeding program but I found it right to
conduct my research on this topic without ignoring the previous researches.

Some people like Jean Marie Robert NDAYISHIMIYE in his thesis “School feeding programme and
pupils ‘attendance in selected primary schools in Huye district, Rwanda” tried to notice some
impacts of this programme by only focusing on school feeding in general. His concern was not
clearly stated because he generalized school feeding programme whereas for my research will deal
with home grown school feeding programme implemented by WFP and its partners which are World
Vision, Garden for Health International and Drakkaar for better practices of reading impacting
literacy rate in Rutsiro district, one of the area of this program implementation.

As far as I am concerned, my contribution will be to show in detail how Home Grown School feeding
program led to literacy improvement in Rutsiro district which will be fruitful for all people who will
try to read it because it will go in deep what others did not talk about.

1.4. OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH

1.4.1. General objective
The overall objective of this study is to examine the impact of home grown school feeding program
on literacy improvement in Rutsiro district, Rwanda.
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1.4.2. Specific objectives
Besides to the general objective of the research, the following are specific objectives:
(i) To identify home grown school feeding program components on which it is
implemented.
(ii) To identify roles played by each stakeholder in the implementation of home grown
school feeding program.
(iii) To examine the levels of literacy before and after the commencement of the HGSF
program.
(iv) To investigate the effects of HGSF program on literacy improvement.

1.5. RESEARCH QUESTIONS

A number of questions reflecting specific objectives need to be responded to in order to explore what
is intended to be delivered by HGSF program in ensuring literacy on Rwandan students precisely in
Rutsiro district.
These related research questions are:

(i) What are home grown school feeding program components on which it is implemented?
(ii) What are roles played by all HGSF stakeholders is in its implementation?
(iii) What are the levels of literacy before and after the commencement of the HGSF program?
(iv) What are effects of HGSF program on literacy improvement

1.6. HYPOTHESIS OF THE RESEARCH

(i) There is the significant increase in school enrolment and attendance and modest have
achieved due HGSF program.
(ii) Literacy rate increases as a number of policies and programmes on the horizon represent
opportunities for further promoting the development of early literacy skills and child-friendly
literacy environments.

1.7. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The methodology is mainly based on an integrated approach that includes historical and descriptive
aspects. A critical-analytical approach will be adopted to comprehend the findings and the
functioning of Home grown school feeding program structures.

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Bearing in mind that this study is using a qualitative approach, the research methods and techniques
to be used in data collection for this study are those suggested by Gabriellian (1999:190-191).
According to him, qualitative research employs a host of techniques for collecting and analysing data.
As Punch (cited in Gabriellian, 1999:190-191) observes, three of these techniques are central-
observation, questionnaires, interviewing and documentary analysis, that are employed across a
variety of disciplines.

Participant observation: This method required that the researcher made observations and kept
records of the activity experienced in the actual community context. The benefit of this technique was
that patterns and trends could be noted and captured by the researcher. The observation concerned
mainly how community representatives are empowered and the effects of that power they own. This
implies that, the researcher had to perform the role of recording impact of HGSF program comparing
before during and after this program.

Individual interviews: For the sake of consistency and objectivity, different sets of questions will be
prepared as interview frameworks for individuals based on whether they were the key informants or
role-players in HGSF program.

Use of documentation: A number of documents kept by various ministries, NGOs and local
government institutions, will be studied. Those are mostly related to previous studies linked to this
topic. Such sources include theories, policies of school feeding, memorandums, books, websites and
published data from government’s reports and NGOs.

1.8. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Home Grown School Feeding Program should be seen as an opportunity to find an alternative,
affordable and appropriate approach that will make feeding school children possible so as to enhance
academic performance and promote consistent learning in primary schools. It should also improve a
child’s growth and development. The findings of the study will be used to provide information to
managers or sponsors of the Feeding Programme on effective implementation and management of
HGSF program. They may also assist the government and others involved in the feeding programme.
Also the study helps to guide parents, teachers and the community on the ways of best practices of
hgsf program in primary schools. The study also provides general knowledge on the impacts of

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 HGSF program in primary schools in relation to literacy improvement. The findings may also help
the Ministry of Education to improve ways of learning and managing primary schools on basis of
HGSF Program in Rutsiro district and Rwanda at large.

1.9. Conceptual framework

Dependent variables (literacy
Independent variables (Home improvement)
grown School feeding program)

Extraneous variables

-Improved school
-Provision of food
Attendance rate;
Political stability;
-Health and hygiene improved - Improved school
Educational policy;
-Teachers and school Enrollment rate
administrators are trained and Infrastructure - Improved attentiveness
using teaching techniques.

-Parents are aware of the

importance of education

Source: Researcher design, 2014

Figure 1. 1: Conceptual framework.

The potential impact goal of targeting children through HGSF program is to increase their

educational achievement so as to improve their potential future productivity and earnings. HGSF

programs increase school attendance by lowering the opportunity costs of attending school and

providing additional incentives to engage in formal education. This leads to more time spent in school

and more time spent towards learning. The other issue is the improved nutritional status of children

by providing them calories and nutrients in addition to their regular diet. This leads to better health

and better resistance to infectious diseases and illnesses that would keep children from attending

school (Buttenheim et al. 2011). Thus, better nutrition indirectly improves educational achievement

by increasing school Enrollment, attendance and promotion of children at school.

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1.10. SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE RESEARCH

Due to limited finance and limited time for this study, the research will be conducted in Rutsiro
District in Western Province of Rwanda.This being the case, the findings are not generalizable to all
places where HGSF program is implemented. The findings however point out to key issues that can
facilitate the implementation of HGSF program in other places.

This study was limited in time scope, geographical scope and content scope.

Geographical scope

Rutsiro District is one of the seven Districts making up the Western Province , located 150 km the
capital Kigali. It has a population of 324,654 of which 60% are below 25 years, and a population
density of 281 inhabitants per km² by 2012. This District is made up of 13 administrative Sectors, 62
Cells and 483 villages commonly known as “Imidugudu” covering a surface area of 1157.3 km².

In the East: From North to South, the limit of the District of Rutsiro leaves the banks of rivers
Bihongora and Nyanzo until the limit of Kavumu sector in Ngororero District

In the West: From the South to the North, the limits of Rutsiro District is confused with the border
between the Republic of Rwanda and the Democratic republic of Congo. Rutsiro begins from the
border with Karongi District and continues up to the border that it shares with Rubavu District
on Lake Kivu.

In the South: From the West to the East, the District of Rutsiro shares a border with the Northern
limits of Karongi District from the border with the Republic of Rwanda and the Democratic republic
of Congo where the Districts of Rutsiro and Karongi meet on Lake Kivu up to where the Districts of
Rutsiro, Ngororero and Karongi meet towards the East.

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 Rutsiro District

District

Shown within Western Province and Rwanda

Country Rwanda

Province Western

Capital Gihango

Area

• Total 1,159 km2 (447 sq mi)

Population (2012 census)

• Total 324,654

• Density 280/km2 (730/sq m

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutsiro_District
Time scope
This research was carried out within two years; June 2017 -2019.
Content scope
The research focused mainly on the ongoing impact of Home Grown School Feeding program on
literacy improvement in Rutsiro district in Rwanda. As this program date from 2016, the analysis
emphasizes facts realized from the beginning up to now.

1.11. Structure and sequence of the study

The structure of this study is as follows: After the introductory chapter that integrates the background
and the rationale of the study, the statement of the problem, objectives, the hypothesis, literature
review, methods, significance of the study and limitations, chapter two presents the review of
literature. It states globally an overview of Home Grown School feeding program by defining key

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concepts. This chapter highlights Home Grown School feeding program across its international
context and across its different forms.

Chapter three provides embodies the techniques and methods that will be used to collect data, to
sample from target population and to analyze the data. It consists of the research methodology which
includes research design, target population, sample size and sampling procedures, data collection,
research instruments, validity and reliability, data collection procedures and data analysis procedure.

Chapter four consists of presentation, analysis and discussion of the research findings; and chapter
five gives a summary, conclusion and recommendation of the study.

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 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Introduction

This chapter aims at providing an understanding of the concept of Impact of homegrown school

feeding program and other relevant concepts as put forward by different authors in books, reports and

any published documents which are available to the researcher.

2.2. Key terms definitions

The following key terms is related to the research topic by which it makes clear understanding on

what concerns the research, the research scrutinize the terms like school feeding and home grown

school feeding.

2.2.1. School Feeding

School feeding is a well-recognized program that alleviates hunger while supporting education, health

and community development. School feeding can take different forms: providing school meals, mid-

morning or lunch meals, or even snacks, to be eaten during school hours. According to Burbano et al.

(2009), it is a versatile safety net that can be used as platform to support children and their families in

a variety of contexts, such as emergencies, economic shocks and, finally, linking to local purchases

and increasing the income of small-scale farmers (Burbano, 2009a).

2.2.2. Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF)

In the broadest sense, HGSF is a school feeding program that provides food produced and purchased

within the country. The main objective of HGSF programme is to link school feeding with local

agriculture production.

The HGSF program assumes that households, local farmers or small businesses may benefit from the

demand of the school feeding program if procurement is designed to increase their ability to access

the market and if efforts are made to increase their production. School children may benefit from food

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that is indigenous to their culture through the school feeding programme. The entire HGSF program

depends on an institutional framework that can sustain the programme and enable its smooth

implementation (Burbano, 2009b).

REFERENCES
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1. Barb, B. (2008). School Feeding Programs: Summary of the Literature and Best Practices,
Village Hope Technical Report 6.
2. Gabriellian, V. 1999. Qualitative research methods: An overview, in Miller, G. J &

3. WFP. (2001). School Feeding Handbook. Retrieved on 24 July 2018 from

http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.

4. School Feeding Programme in Rwanda Mineduc extract, Thursday 11 November 2010

5. The New Times. (October 2011). Literacy for Rwanda’s Development retrieved on 24 July
2018 from http://www.newtimes.co.rw/
6. UNESCO. Boston Consulting Group. (2008). Estimation for WFP, based on FAO statistics.

7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutsiro_District

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