Midday meal at schools resumes in April
Rohingya children residing in Cox's Bazar and Bhasan Char will also be included in this project
The government is going to reintroduce the midday meal at government primary schools across the country in April this year.
About 31.30 lakh students of about 20,000 primary schools mostly from poverty prone areas in the country will come under the feeding scheme.
"The government has taken the initiative to provide midday meal five days in a week to ensure nutrition of students and prevent dropouts," Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) Director General Abu Noor Md Shamsuzzaman told BSS.
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He said the three-year-term project will play a vital role to ensure quality education of students.
According the DEP official, the project will be implemented across the country in phases. The school feeding programme will be run in 19,419 government primary schools in 150 upazilas of 62 districts across the country.
The midday meal items will include milk, eggs, bread and seasonal fruits. A roadmap has been prepared for distribution of dry nutritious food in three phases.
The meal will cost Tk39-Tk40 per student while a committee of locals will work under the supervision of the Upazila Nirbahi Officer to maintain discipline in the programme.
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) recently approved the three-year project proposal of Tk5,452 crore. The government will bear the cost of the school feeding programme from its own resources while the project will be implemented by the DPE.
Primary and Mass Education Adviser Professor Dr Bidhan Ranjan Roy Podder said the purpose of the mid-day meal project is to ensure nutrition of the school children.
"Our primary school students suffer from malnutrition. This project has a health component," he added.
Rohingya children residing in Cox's Bazar and Bhasan Char will also be included in this project, the adviser said, adding, 6,099 teachers from 1,095 government primary schools will receive skill-building training under this project.
Professor of Dhaka University (DU) Institute of Education and Research Dr Md Abdus Salam termed the school feeding programme as a timely initiative, saying it would ensure proper nutrition of school goers.
