New Delhi: Mid-Day-Meal, being provided to nearly 12 crore children everyday in government and aided schools, may be extended to privately managed schools in
tribal areas and unaided minority institutions.
The HRD Ministry has set up a committee to examine extension of the scheme to such institutions. The committee had held a meeting of state education secretaries and asked
them to suggest their views on how it can be implemented since there is confusion over number of recognised schools in different states.
"In certain states, the elementary schools are recognised by the government, while they are not recognised in a few other states. The question is what should be the
criteria to identify schools for inclusion under the scheme," official sources said.
The committee apprehends that many non-deserving institutions may take advantage of the scheme for lack of proper criteria. A few states have submitted their
representation to the ministry so far.
The Mid-Day-Meal scheme covers children studying in Class-I to Class-VIII in government and aided schools and centres under Education Guarantee Scheme and Alternative and Innovative Education, including madrassas supported under Sarva Siksha Abhiyan.
The Mid-day-Meal scheme was launched in 1995 with a view to enhancing enrolment, retention and attendance and simultaneously improving nutritional levels among children.
Initially, it was covering children from Class-I to Class-V in government, aided and local body schools. It was extended in 2002 to cover children studying in EGS and AIE
centres.
In 2007, the scheme was further revised to cover children in upper primary (classes VI to VIII) initially in 3479 Educationally Backward Blocks (EBBs). From 2008-09, the
programme covers all children studying in government, local body and government-aided primary and upper primary schools and the EGS/AIE centres of all areas across the country.
The calorific value of a mid-day meal at upper primary stage has been fixed at a minimum of 700 calories and 20 grams of protein by providing 150 grams of food grains per child per school day.
Nearly 8.41 crore primary students and 3.36 crore Upper Primary students are estimated to be benefited from MDM Scheme during 2009-10.
The government last month decided to increase quantity of pulses from 25 to 30 grams, vegetables from 65 to 75 grams and to decrease the quantity of oil and fat from 10 to 7.5
grams in each meal provided to children.
PTI
