Ensure midday meal quality, Edu Dept tells school heads

Faridkot, December 24

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The School Education Department has made school heads responsible for ensuring good quality of mid-day meal (MDM) served to students in government and government-aided schools by strengthening the existing monitoring and grievances redressal mechanism.

The state general manager of MDM scheme on Friday issued a letter to all school heads on the directions of Department of School Education and Ministry of Education, after some recent instances of serving of substandard quality of meals to schoolchildren in Bihar, Odisha and Telengana were reported. Many children had fallen ill and there were complaints about the poor quality of meal served to the students.

Telling the schools to ensure community participation in the form of gram panchayats, parents or social audit as a key feedback mechanism, the schools have been asked to ensure that all children properly wash their hands before and after the meal in the schools.

Earlier, the Centre had issued detailed guidelines on the MDM scheme to all states, making it mandatory that the food be tasted by a teacher just before the meals are served to children.