Bangladesh signs agreement with WFP to expand school feeding programme

Bangladesh has signed an agreement with the World Food Programme (WFP) for expanding and improving the school feeding programme for the country's primary school students.

The agreement was inked at an event attended by Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen.

Bangladesh government introduced a school feeding programme in 2010 and now some 23 lakh students of 15,000 primary schools in 104 upazilas are getting free meals.

Under the new agreement, the school feeding programme will be expanded to more than 150 upazilas, raising the number of beneficiaries to 37 lakh students. Besides, fruits, milk, bread, eggs and other nutritious foods will be served instead of fortified biscuits.

Thanks to the feeding programme, the dropout rate has declined by 7.5% and the enrolment rate has increased by 14% in the primary schools, said Momen.

Moreover, Bangladesh has become the 85th member of the School Meals Coalition at an event here on Monday.

Bangladesh Ambassador to Italy Md Shameem Ahsan and PM's speechwriter Md Nazrul Islam were present.