Teachers’ Perceptions of the Chief Minister Punjab School Meal Program and Its Perceived Effects on Children with Hearing Impairment

Abstract

School meal programs are one of the effective interventions for improving children's health, academic outcomes, and nutrition. In Pakistan Chief Minister Punjab School Meal Program for special children is one of the best initiatives. This program provides biscuits and milk to registered special children. The main focus of this study is to evaluate the impact of this program on hearing-impaired children. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the perception of teachers to see the effect of Chief Minister Punjab School Meal Program on hearing-impaired children. Data were collected from 100 teachers for this study, and all those teachers were teaching hearing-impaired children in special education schools. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection, with 35 items. SPSS (version 26) was used for data analysis, in which descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, and regression analysis were included. Findings indicate that teachers have positive perceptions about this program. The academic outcome was higher than the health outcome. According to regression analysis, health perception and qualification are found to be strong predictors of academic outcomes. The questionnaire had excellent reliability (Cronbach's α = .958).