Staff reporter :
The Cabinet on Monday approved the government’s plan to provide meals to nearly 1.5 crore primary school students in order to increase attendance and reduce the number of dropouts.
The ‘National School Meal Policy 2019’ was approved at the Cabinet’s regular meeting held at Prime Minister Office (PMO) in the city’s Tejgaon area on Monday.
The policy aims to cover at least 30 per cent of the nutritional needs of a child through the school meal programme by 2023, Cabinet Secretary Md Shafiul Alam told reporters after the meeting on Monday.
The policy proposes to provide students warm and nutritious meals five days a week and fortified biscuits on one day.
To ensure minimum dietary diversity, meals will be prepared with fortified rice, vegetable oil, locally-grown fresh vegetables, if possible, with eggs so that students get enough protein and micronutrients, according to the policy. The menu will be selected in consultation with the schools’ managing committees, parents and locals, the Secretary said. Mothers will also be included in the programme to be overseen by an advisory committee comprising locals, he said
“At present, the programme is being implemented at the government primary schools in 104 upazilas as a pilot project. It will be introduced across the country at phases. All the government primary schools will come under the scheme by 2013,” he said.
In line with the policy, the government will form a National School Meal Authority to supervise the overall activities and an advisory committee comprising eminent personalities of the society to evaluate and give necessary advices to make it successful. The Primary and Mass Education Ministry has finalized a draft policy in this regard, according to him.
The midday-meals would have to meet 30 percent calories and 50 percent micronutrient of the primary school students aged 3 to 12 years, he added.
According to Primary and Mass Education Ministry, as many as 1.40 crore students of 66,000 government primary schools across the country will be provided with midday-meals by 2023 and it will require Taka 2,835 crore per year for giving fortified biscuits to the students, Taka 5,560 crore for giving cooked foods in five days and biscuits in one day and Taka 7,475 crore to give egg, banana and bread.The rate of presence of the students has increased by 11 percent in schools where cooked foods are being served and by 6 percent, where biscuits are being given to the students, it mentioned. The government is currently giving a 75-gram pack of biscuit to nearly three million children at primary schools in 104 upazilas under the current project involving Taka 474 crore and it will end by December in 2020, he said, adding that the government is giving cooked midday-meals to primary school students in three upazilas including Bamna and Islampur of Jamalpur.
Besides, highlighting the importance of school meal and its link to attendance, KM Enamul Hoque, Deputy Director of Campaign for Popular Education, said, “School meals are necessary as many children across the country go to school in an empty stomach every day. It makes it hard for them to focus on their studies in class.” “Students will get better nutrition if they get food at schools every day. It is also a great incentive for families to send their children to school which will help increase attendance and check dropout.” Last year, primary student attendance rate was 88 percent while dropout rate was around 20 percent, according to the Annual Primary School Census 2018.
The World Food Program (WFP) in a statement in April noted that micronutrient deficiencies a huge challenge to Bangladesh, with economic losses to malnutrition estimated at $1 billion per year.
Once the policy is implemented, it will minimise students’ short-term hunger, create a more positive learning environment and allow students to better concentration in classrooms, ministry officials said.
