The Jammu and Kashmir government is planning to outsource the mid day meal (MDM) scheme in the state so that teachers can focus only on academic activities and the project will be started on a pilot basis in Jammu and Samba districts.
Minister of State for Education Priya Sethi, at a meeting of education department functionaries and representatives of Akshay Patra, an NGO serving Mid Day Meals to around 17 lakh students in a number of states, discussed pros and cons of outsourcing the scheme and sought details of the working style of the NGO.
"The government is mulling to outsource mid day meal scheme to relieve teachers from the additional work and enable them to pay full attention on teaching learning processes and holistic development of the students," she said.
After detailed discussion, the minister said, "It was decided that initially the project shall be started on a pilot basis in Jammu and Samba districts."
She and a team of the NGO's officials visited four locations each in the two districts to explore the possibility of establishing centralised kitchens.
According to a release, it has been decided that the staff (cooks) already in place shall continue to work in the scheme as desired by the minister of education.
Once the pilot project succeeds, the module shall be replicated in the remaining districts of Jammu Division and consequently followed by Kashmir Division, it said.
Sethi hoped that the collaboration with the NGO to run mid day meal programme for serving wholesome school lunch will accomplish the aim of increasing enrolment in govt schools, increasing school attendance, minimise dropout rate, improve performance of both students and teachers.
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