Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Mid-day meal scheme a failure in Rajasthan by Perneet Singh

Mid-day meal scheme a failure in Rajasthan by Perneet Singh

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Apr 3, 2010   modified Modified on Apr 3, 2010

Even as the Right to Education Act comes into force in the country yesterday, the Mid-day meal scheme, an ambitious scheme of the previous Congress-led regime under PV Narsimha Rao, has failed to attract children to government schools in the state.

Recently Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot admitted that 10 lakh children had dropped out of government schools in the state in the last five years. Official figures from the Rural Development Department reveal that the situation is far worse. The enrolment in primary schools stood at a whopping 1.01 crore in 2005-06. However, the decline set in the very next year, with the number dropping to 69.60 lakh, which is a drastic fall of almost 30 per cent.

Ever since, the number of students in primary schools is on the decline, dropping to 63.56 lakh in 2007-08, 62.13 lakh in 2008-09 and 58.55 lakh in 2009-10. Therefore, there has been an overall decrease of around 42 per cent in the number of children availing mid-day meals in the government schools over the last five years. The Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan data also corroborates the fact that enrolment in government primary school is witnessing a downward trend. However, this is only one side of the story. The other side of the story is that there has been an increase in the number of children enrolled in private schools has gone up.

Though the Centre as well as the state government have initiated some measures to improve the scheme, only time will tell how far they succeed. The Centre has increased the cooking conversion cost for Class I to V from Rs 2.08 to Rs 2.50 per student per meal and for Class VI to Class VIII from Rs 2.60 to Rs 3.75 per student per meal. This came into effect on December 1, 2009.

Similarly, the state government in its recent Budget announced the construction of kitchens in 26,000 schools at the cost of Rs 128 crore. It has also decided to provide gas connection to 25,000 schools and utensils for serving food to 34,000 schools. Apart from it, 1.4 lakh cooks will be engaged in 70,000 schools at an honorarium of Rs 1,000 per month.

Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Bharat Singh didn’t rule out the possibility of teachers inflating the figures of enrolment. “It is possible as their postings depend on it.” He said the previous BJP regime didn’t care to check these figures and now they were looking into the matter.


The Tribune, 3 April, 2010, http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20100403/nation.htm#16


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close