Provision of mid-day meal for schoolchildren begins in January: Minister

A national program for providing a mid-day meal for schoolchildren will kick off in January, covering entire schools in the country, Education Minister Susil Premajayantha said.

While addressing an event organized at the Prince School in Kotahena yesterday, he said the pilot program was initiated from the Prince School by distributing dry rations worth more than Rs. 900,000 for the school.

Earlier, the Minister admitted in Parliament that Sri Lankan schoolchildren are not receiving adequate food, and the government had allocated more funds for the mid-day meal program.

Later, the government allocated Rs. 4 billion to provide lunch to schoolchildren. This comes to about Rs.75 per child. Another Rs. 4 billion was allocated to provide school needs for the schoolchildren, including shoes.

However, the pilot program for providing a school mid-day meal was launched yesterday in 18 schools in the Colombo district.

"With the progress of this, the national program will get off the ground in January, covering all educational zones in the country based on four objectives. Mid-day meal, counselling, prevention of misconduct in schools, and vocational training and guidance will be the main objectives," the Minister said.

Meanwhile, he said Rs. 200 million was allocated for rural schools to provide health facilities. A capital budget of at least Rs. 40,000 million was allocated for the education ministry. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)