Schools await funds for midday meal scheme

Schools in the State are once again struggling for funds for implementing the midday meal scheme – with arrears piling up from December onwards, say school authorities.

A school in Kasaragod that has just a little over 1,000 students is due lakhs of rupees since December. With funds from the government stalled, teachers spend ₹4,000 to ₹5,000 a month from their own pocket to ensure midday meals to students from deprived backgrounds, say schools.

Often, it is a juggling game with advances and delayed payments to vendors for vegetables, grocery, or condiments.

What is worse is having to repeatedly request for funds that they should not have to at all, say teachers.

They were expecting to receive funds at least before the elections. “If payments till February are received, then we can still manage with funds for one month pending,” say teachers.

Head teachers who bear most of the burden to keep the scheme afloat say that many among them retire by the end of March, and it will be June when new headmasters assume charge. Only once the positions are filled can the retired head teachers may realistically expect to receive any funds against expenses incurred by them when they were in service.

School authorities say they are not getting any replies from General Education department officials when they can expect to receive the funds. “It is as if the government has washed its hands of us. The scheme’s continued run cannot be attributed to government support, but must be owed to the hardwork of teachers who are committed to students,” a head teacher, who did not want to be identified, said.

Teachers complain that even as the department has allowed them to shift to firewood to cook the midday meal in the wake of the conflict in West Asia, they have not been asked how they would pay for the firewood.

The Kerala Government Primary School Headmasters’ Association has expressed its protest against the delay in sanctioning funds for the midday meal scheme.