Edu Deptt to outsource supply of mid-day meals to NGOs

The Education department has decided to outsource the work of supplying the mid-day meals to the school children to Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to ensure that the academic work was not hit due to employment of teachers in arranging the food items.

Officials said the Education department has decided that NGOs should supply the meals as thousands of teachers have to be engaged to lift the ration and other food items from market to supply the meals to children.

They said during the current financial year, over 23166 schools have been covered including 13435 primary and 9731 upper primary schools in the state under the mid-day meal scheme.

In most of the areas, the depots of the Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CAPD) department are located at far off places. It consumes a lot of time of teachers in arranging the meals for the students.

A senior government official said the food grains have to be lifted by the zonal and school authorities from the nearest outlets of the CAPD before 25th of each quarter and due to hilly topography of the state the food grains are not delivered at the schools.

He said the teachers have to lift the commodities from the market on credit due to which they incur heavy liabilities owing to delay in the release of funds by the Education department to the Chief Education Officers (CEOs).

“Besides, the bills remain pending for long time in treasuries due to which the heavy liabilities are incurred by teachers,” said the official.

Another official said in other states of the country, the NGOs are being employed to supply the cooked mid day meal to the students.

“However, here besides engaging the teachers in arranging the stocks, the cooks have been employed on the monthly honorarium of Rs 1,000 to prepare the meals,” he said adding engaging teachers in preparation of the mid-day meals has hit the education in the government schools.

He said due to this reason, the government is considering to employ the NGOs to supply the meals to the children.

The official further said the mid-day meal scheme was launched in the State in September 2004 to increase the enrollment in government schools and check the drop-out rate.

“The fact is that engagement of thousands of teachers has hampered the education in the schools as they (teachers) have to ensure that the food grains are properly lifted from the Food Corporation of India and the schools adhere to the menu of cooking the food for the children. Besides the ration from the market, the menu also comprises pulses and vegetable,” he said.

Joint Director Education, Mehboob Hussain, told KIF that the government is working towards streamlining the supply of mid-day meals.