The Centre will release Rs 97 crore for the state’s Mid-day Meal Scheme in schools. Out of this, Rs 85.5 crore will be allocated for modernising school kitchens and stores and Rs 11.5 crore for replacing old utensils.
General Education Secretary K Elangovan told Express the financial aid for the scheme would be released shortly. He was speaking after a meeting of the State Monitoring and Steering Committee for the Scheme. The Centre has also decided to hike the allowance for cooks preparing meals in schools by `50. The committee has also recommended to the Centre to hike the noon-meal allocation per child by ` one.
“Cooks in schools with less than 150 students were being paid an allowance of Rs 150 and those in schools with more than 150 students were paid Rs 200. This has been hiked to Rs 200 and Rs 250,” Government School Teachers Union state president J Sasi, who is a member of the Committee, said.
The committee has recommended that the allocation of Rs 5 per child (in schools with less than 150 students) and Rs 6 per child (in schools with more than 150 students) for meeting cooking and fuel expenses be hiked by Rs one each. In order to ensure proper monitoring of the scheme, it has also decided to depute 38 officials at the district education officer-level and 14 officials at the deputy director-level.
Unrecognised Schools Face Closure
T’Puram: The government has decided to close down all unrecognised unaided schools in the state by April 30, 2014.According to a recent government order, a time frame has also been prescribed for those schools meeting the Right to Education (RTE) guidelines to obtain recognition. “As per the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, all unrecognised schools shall be closed down or a one-time fine imposed, which may extend to Rs one lakh, and a fine of Rs 10,000 for each day for which the school continues to function,” the order said.