Slow response from the Government left 16 municipalities of Cesar without PAE

The School Feeding Program (PAE) could not be executed during the last stretch of the 2025 academic calendar in the 16 non-certified municipalities of Cesar, due to delays in the allocation of royalty resources. This was confirmed by the departmental Secretary of Education, Jazmín Rocío García Meneses, who regretted that national procedures prevented the continuity of the service from being guaranteed.

“We put in all the effort, we have been working since December 2024, even at work tables in Bogotá, but the times were against us,” he explained.

The project had been approved by the Caribbean Regional OCAD on September 25, but the resources were only released on October 14, when the school calendar was close to ending. This delay prevented the addition of contracts that expired in August, leaving thousands of students without food assistance in the last months of the year.

“When the resources arrived, it no longer made sense to hire in November. The children were about to go on vacation and the service would become unviable,” García said.

The Ministry of Education even requested the Ministry of National Education for authorization to extend the execution to the beginning of 2026, but the request was denied. “The Ministry of Education was opposed. We supported it in writing, but it was not possible,” added the secretary.

García attributed the failure of the process to the slow inter-institutional management involved in the approval of royalty projects, in which several ministries must intervene. “There are four ministries that must give the approval, and that delays the entire process,” he said.

The resources that were not executed were returned to the royalty system, while the departmental administration is already advancing the formulation of a new project for the period 2026, with an estimated allocation of $109 billion, higher than the $70 billion of the previous year.

“With this investment we hope to guarantee more days of care and prevent this situation from happening again,” said the Secretary of Departmental Education.