All govt primary schools to get 'mid-day meal' starting next year

The school feeding program, commonly known as the "Midday Meal," in government primary schools is being expanded across the country. By next year, this program will be launched in all government primary schools in Bangladesh. This means children will receive food when they attend school.

State Minister for Primary and Mass Education Bobby Hajjaj shared this information while responding to journalists' questions at a press conference organized at the Secretariat on Monday. The press conference was organized on the occasion of International Literacy Day tomorrow, on 8 September.

There are more than 118,000 primary schools in the country, including both government and non-government ones. Among these, the number of government schools is 65,567. The total number of students in these schools is over 20.1 million. The number of students in government schools is more than 10.6 million.

Malnutrition and hunger are major obstacles to primary education. Keeping this reality in mind, the school feeding program was launched in government primary schools in September last year.

Currently, about 3 million students in 19,419 schools across 150 upazilas in the country are being provided with food under this program. The goals of this program are to increase student attendance, reduce dropout rates and maintain attentiveness in classrooms.

Currently, according to a prescribed list, buns, boiled eggs, bananas, UHT milk and fortified biscuits are provided. UHT milk stands for Ultra High Temperature, which is a method of preserving milk so that these packets can be opened and drunk directly. Fortified biscuits are enriched with extra nutrients. The food is changed daily. For example, bun-bread and boiled eggs are provided on Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Responding to journalists' questions at the press conference, State Minister Bobby Hajjaj said that under the leadership of the Prime Minister, the government is committed to launching this program in all government primary schools across the country by next year. He added that the program will be launched in all upazilas simultaneously.

According to relevant sources, the cost of the food has been calculated based on the current market price of Tk 14 per egg, Tk 10 per banana, Tk 25 per bun-bread, Tk 29 per packet of milk and Tk 19 per packet of biscuits.

Selected firms are supplying the food through tenders. Five firms are supplying milk, two are supplying biscuits and 12 firms are supplying the package of buns, eggs and bananas.

On Mondays, bun-bread and UHT milk are provided and on Tuesdays, fortified biscuits and bananas are distributed. However, complaints of distributing rotten or unripe bananas, low-quality bun-bread and spoiled boiled eggs in some areas have surfaced recently regarding the school feeding program.

Responding to journalists' questions on this matter, the State Minister said that many changes have been made in this regard since the last Eid-ul-Azha. He personally visited 12 to 14 districts in a month. He claimed that the weaknesses present at the beginning of the program have now come down to near zero.

When asked if there would be any change in the type of food when the program is launched in schools across the country next year, Bobby Hajjaj said that many experts have worked to determine the food menu. However, efforts are being made to see if any other type of food can be provided while keeping the nutritional value the same.

According to sources at the Directorate of Primary Education, the estimated cost of this program currently implemented in 150 upazilas is Tk 54,520 million for three years. Of this, the allocation for the outgoing fiscal year was Tk 10,920 million.

Now, if the program is launched in another 348 upazilas, meaning across the entire country, the total expenditure could be around Tk 120,000 million.