Socio-Economic Determinants of Financing of School Feeding Practices among Primary and Secondary School Children in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

The significance of school feeding to school children cannot be over-emphasized.Different school feeding programs provide different benefits that could supportstudents’ retention in schools, increase enrolment and attendance, increaseacademic performance and enhanced participatory learning. The study assessedsocioeconomic determinants of school feeding financing in primary andsecondary schools. Specifically, the study examined association between socio-economic status and food financing status in primary and secondary schools. Thestudy adopted a cross-sectional research design whereby a sample of 519households was selected. Quantitative data were analysed with the aid of IBM-Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) whereby descriptive statisticswere computed to obtain frequencies and percentage distributions of theresponses. A forward stepwise binary logistic regression model was used toassess relationship between socio-economic characteristics and provision ofsufficient payment for school meals. The results of forward stepwise binarylogistic regression indicated that number of girls in school in the family, lowestand second wealth quantile and fewer school boys were significantly related withprovision of sufficient payment for school meals in primary schools at the p<0.05significance level, while employment status, sex, income, wealth quantile andnumber of children in and out of school were significantly related with provisionof sufficient payment for school meals in secondary schools at the p<0.05significance level. The study concludes that socioeconomic factors influenceability of parents to afford payments for school meals in both primary andsecondary schools. Based on this, it is recommended that developmentpractitioners in the education sector should provide enabling environmentincluding facilitation of income generating activities among parents withchildren in primary and secondary schools in order to improve their incomestatus which will eventually enable them to have the ability to finance schoolfeeding. The stakeholders in the education sector should create awareness toparents of school children on the importance of financing school feedingprograms for their children. Local Government Authorities and otherstakeholders should develop mechanisms that will ensure effective financing of the school feeding programme in primary and secondary schools.