School Canteen Programme and School Performance in Madagascar

Implementing a school feeding programme to support education is common practice in most States, particularly in developing countries. One of the aims of the programme is to help improve educational outcomes for pupils. Although there is a relationship between the school feeding programme and educational outcomes, the programme does not necessarily lead to its effectiveness. This paper therefore aims to shed more light on the factors that explain the performance of the school feeding programme and its effects on pupils' learning outcomes at the end of primary school by studying the case of Madagascar. The results reveal the limited impact of the school canteen programme on pupils' and mathematics scores. Analyses revealed that while school feeding improves pupils' reading skills, it has no significant effect on their mathematical skills. It was also noted that although the impact of the programme was not palpable for public primary schools, a modest improvement in school results was observed for pupils in private schools. This research work concludes that the effectiveness of the school canteen programme also depends on multiple criteria linked to the environment of the target pupils. It will be difficult for the programme to achieve its full effectiveness in terms of school performance as long as the socio economic context of the pupils remains critical and the quality of teaching remains low.