Midday meal for primary students from next year

The government is working to resume providing midday meals for primary school students within next year, said State Minister for Primary and Mass Education Zakir Hossain today.

"A feasibility study has been conducted in this regard and the programme will resume in due time," said Zakir Hossain at a press conference on Wednesday (7 September) in the capital.

The project was last active during the Covid-19 pandemic before coming to a halt in December 2020.

School meals taken away when they are needed most

School administrators and many others observed that the continuation of the project was required more than ever amid the pandemic. Free food from school was evidently the reason for coming to classes, they noted.

World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO said the school feeding had positive effects on education-related indicators and in improving the nutrition status of the future generation. The agencies advocated for expanding the outreach of the programme.

After the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971, the government started to give school children milk powder in some impoverished areas. In 1993, the food-for-schooling programme was launched officially, offering young learners rice, pulses and cash.

Vitamin-enriched biscuits replaced these items after 2000.

In 2002, a larger school feeding programme was launched for flood-affected families in Jashore as an emergency response. In 2010, with the assistance of the World Food Programme, the programme was initiated at the national level and continued until 2014.

From 2014 to 2021, the project was extended multiple times.

The primary and mass education ministry spent Tk4,991 crore on the feeding programme from 2010 to 2021. Around 5 crore students have benefited from the school feeding programme since 1990, said ministry sources.

Children used to get cooked meals in 14 upazilas while kids elsewhere used to get vitamin-enriched biscuits weighing 75 grams.