T’gana may implement midday meal scheme for classes 11, 12
At present, the mid-day meals scheme in Telangana has been implemented across 26,519 government schools in the state, benefitting 2.036 million students from class 5 to 10.
Hyderabad Close on the heels of Andhra Pradesh, the Telangana government is panning to implement the midday meal scheme for Intermediate students (classes 11 and 12) in the state-run junior colleges, a state education department official familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
At present, the mid-day meals scheme in Telangana has been implemented across 26,519 government schools in the state, benefitting 2.036 million students from class 5 to 10.
The official said: “The directorate of intermediate education is now working out the proposal to implement the mid-day meals scheme in the junior colleges as well, as per the directions of chief minister A Revanth Reddy. If approved by the government, the scheme will be implemented from the next academic year (2025-26).”
At present, there are 425 government junior colleges across the state, with approximately 170,000 students enrolled. Since these colleges are located in constituency and mandal headquarters, many students have to commute from distant areas daily.
“Students who are unable to bring food in the morning often leave for home by afternoon. This situation has led to an increase in dropout rates, with attendance not even crossing 50%,” the official said.
“In order to address these issues, the government is considering implementing the midday meal scheme for Intermediate students. The logistics and the expenditure for the implementation of the scheme are being worked out and the proposal will be submitted to the government within a week or two,” he said.
“The state government is expected to allocate funds for this scheme in the upcoming budget. It is estimated that the scheme would cost around ₹20-25 per student per day, amounting to ₹100-120 crore annually,” the official added.
The previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government proposed the implementation of mid-day meal scheme for students in the government junior and degree colleges along with the schools. It was proposed to engage non-governmental organisations like the Akshaya Patra Foundation to operate the scheme, but the scheme did not take off due to financial constraints, he added.
The Andhra Pradesh government led by chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu commenced implementation of the mid-day meals scheme for students of intermediate in all the government junior colleges across the state.
The scheme is benefitting around 132,000 students in 475 junior colleges in the state, including about 60,000 Intermediate second-year students and 72,000 first-year students.
“It has been estimated that for the current 2024-25 financial year, it would cost ₹27.39 crore and for the next financial year, it would cost around ₹85.84 crore,” an Andhra Pradesh government order said.
