Kitchen gardens to be set up in 20 girls' residential schools at Rs 63 lakh

CHENNAI: The integrated school education department will soon establish kitchen gardens spread over 1,000 sq.ft each at 20 residential schools for girls in nine districts on a pilot basis.

The scheme, to be implemented at Rs 63 lakh, is an attempt to tackle the problem of malnutrition and micronutrition deficiency among girl students by adding variety to the midday-meal scheme. It will also offer the children first-hand learning experience about nutrition.

For this, weekly horticulture-skill-development classes will be organised, wherein students will learn kitchen gardening in theory and practice. Every school will also be equipped with necessary equipment, consumables and seeds for cultivating plants.

Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas, residential schools with mostly girl students from disadvantaged backgrounds, have been chosen for the project. This was done, according to sources, to prevent disruption in nurturing plans as students in these school mostly stayed in hostels throughout the year.

While there are 57 such schools in the state, functioning in educationally backward blocks, only those that can provide 1,000 sq.ft have been chosen in the first phase.

The team for the project will comprise schools, Samagra Shiksha team and members of the vendor who would monitor as well as create awareness among students.

In each school, the headteacher and the warden will oversee the implementation of the project.

The warden will ensure consumption of freshly grown fruits and vegetables by the students and also track the development of immunity in each child. This will be done by checking the frequency of students falling sick a month, keeping a track of their performance in class activities and academic performance.

A gardener will be responsible for monitoring the progress of the students in relation to nurturing the plants. The gardener and the warden will submit reports to the headteacher each month.

"The department has released a tender to hire a service provider to carry out the project. A project manager, nutritionist, a seminar-delivery team of five members and 20 crop cultivators will work for the project.

The service provider will be responsible for nurturing and maintaining the garden with help of students aside from teaching the students," said a school education department official.