Authorities should resume countrywide primary school midday meals
Despite a 2019 government policy for providing midday meals to students at all government primary schools by 2023 and against the backdrop of a failed step to start another school meal project in January 2021, the programme is yet to be introduced on mass scale. The primary and mass education ministry has recently initiated a new five-year project to provide meals to students in 110 poverty-prone upazilas with the target to start it from the 2023-24 financial year.
Educationists said that the government should implement the programme in accordance with the National Education Policy 2010 a show of its dedication to quality education for children. As per the Annual Primary School Census 2021, there were 1,18,891 primary-level educational institutions in Bangladesh, including 65,566 government primary schools and various privately run educational institutions such as kindergarten schools, ebtedayee madrassahs and learning centres.
Between 2010 and June 2022, the government ran a school feeding programme – with a 75-gram biscuit pack for each student – in 104 poverty-prone upazilas benefitting nearly 30 lakh children at 15,788 government primary schools under a pilot project involving Tk 474 crore. During that time, the government also provided cooked meals to primary school students in three upazilas – Barguna, Jamalpur and Bandarban. Following the 2019 policy, the primary and mass education ministry sent a project proposal involving an estimated cost of Tk 19,296 crore to the planning commission in September 2020 to start it in January 2021. The government did not have the capacity to run such a programme for all primary-level students, so locals can come forward to take part in the programme.
When this midday meal programme was implemented earlier, everyone appreciated it for the positive impacts it had. We expect the government will resume school feeding projects across the country to ensure children’s nutrition, 100 per cent admission to schools, regular presence in schools and the prevention of dropouts.
