The President has denied the claim of schools to charge monetary lunch fee for pupils under the Universal Primary Education (UPE), arguing that this program was conceived for poor families that could not afford additional fees. Besides, he declared that the pay of un-necessary amounts of money will create additional barriers to the free UPE as the ones that already exist; expensive uniforms, books, tours and others items.

Against the backdrop of the ministry's policy to make education free of charge, the 2009 school year has begun, beset by shortages of supplies, lunches, furniture, and some teachers in public schools and institutions. Not only did pupils entering the schools have to take or buy their lunch but they also got an extended playtime, as the schools lacked the desks and teaching materials for the few teachers who were in place to give classes.

Operaciones y Descuentos Diversos, S.A. (Oddisa), a company chosen to prepare and distribute school lunches is under investigation for misappropriation of funds and money laundering. The many transactions, including accounts in Barbados, Luxembourg, and Paris, plus reports from schools in the provinces that stores of school-lunch products were burgled and other warehouses burned down, made it impossible to recover records.

The Ministry of Education is to launch an investigation into rotting maize meal for its school feeding programme found at a school. 500 bags of maize meal had been stored at a secondary school and not delivered to the intended beneficiaries. The company Meal Management Services holds the contract for the supply and delivery of food to primary schools in six regions.