Midday School meal for students
World education conference 1990 was held in Jomtien, Thailand focusing on
universal education. Based on the decision of the conference a program named
‘Education for all’ was launched. According to the program, a policy was
declared that all the participating countries would take the necessary
initiative to make primary education compulsory. It set its target to remove
illiteracy from their respective countries.
Without education at a primary level, most of the children will not be able to
read and write. As a result, a country will not be able to come out of the
vicious circle of illiteracy. Backwardness in primary education seriously
affects education at the secondary level. In Bangladesh the majority of its
population is poor and they live in rural areas. Schools in rural areas are
not able to fully implement the education for all programs as declared by the
government. Dropout rates in these schools are high and they cannot complete
the course of education fully. There are many reasons for this
situation.
One of the reasons for the dropout problem is that during their stay at school
most of the students remain hungry. They cannot concentrate on studying in the
classroom. The school authority has taken initiatives to get rid of this
problem by launching the mid-day school meal program.
The majority of the people of Bangladesh are poor and they cannot afford
sufficient food for their children. Many of the students come to school
half-fed or unfed. They suffer from malnutrition, cannot concentrate on study,
and are affected by other problems.
To solve this problem the mid-day meal program for students has been
introduced in schools.
Objectives of the mid-day meal program
Some of the main objectives of this program are as follows.
- To mitigate hunger during school time.
- To prevent dropouts and to increase the number of students gradually.
- To enhance interpersonal good relation and friendship, co-existence,
sympathy among students inside and outside the classroom. - To prevent malnutrition and participate in different health programs.
- To participate actively in games and scout programs.
- To remove the pressure of providing food for children of the poor guardians
and ensure their regular attendance in the classroom.
Health Tiffin: A student has to
stay at school for 7 – 8 hours. Naturally, they get hungry during this long
period. They can concentrate on their lessons if they can gratify hunger
during this time. It helps them remove fatigue and tiredness.
As a result of this program, their standard of education goes up. The higher
the quality of the tiffin the better they will feel physically and mentally.
Hence, the school authority has to arrange nutritious tiffin regularly.
Through implementing mid-day Tiffin programs for students, education for all
programs will be carried forward, literacy rate will be increased and finally,
it will contribute to building a strong nation.
