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The
main reasons for children not attending school include:
 distances to rural schools: many primary schoolchildren walk up to two
hours each way;
associated costs: for low-income families the cost of school uniforms and
packed lunches are prohibitively high - for a quarter of rural families
this was the reason for not sending their children to school;
reliance on children for farm labour and household incomes - for a fifth
of rural families this was the reason for not sending children to school;
lack
of interest: school education is often seen as irrelevant; and
the perception in remote areas that girls' education is less important
than boys'.
Under
the WFP-supported school feeding programme, students in boarding schools
at primary, lower secondary, middle secondary, and higher secondary schools
receive breakfast, a mid-morning snack and lunch from WFP; dinner is provided
by a parental contribution for boarding pupils up to class 6, and by the
Government in the form of a cash payment called a "stipend" for boarding
students in class 7 and above and in a few primary boarding schools. Assistance
for boarding students currently accounts for half of WFP expenditure on
school feeding in Bhutan.
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