THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the noon meal scheme in schools in a state of disarray due to lack of funds and the onus of implementing it falling on head teachers, the Kerala government has finally decided to intervene.
In a bid to keep the scheme up and running, the state is considering releasing its share of the project cost to schools in case the Centre further delays its share of funds.
The Union government provides food grains and bears 60% of the project cost of the noon meal scheme while the state funds 40% of the total outlay. In Kerala, the total outlay for the noon meal scheme is Rs 447.46 crore. Of this, the Centre's contribution is Rs 284.31 crore, and the state's Rs 163.15 crore. The Centre pays the states in two instalments every year.
The state maintains that funds for the scheme dried up this academic year after the Union government failed to release its first instalment of Rs 170.59 crore.
General Education Minister V Sivankutty said the state is considering measures including disbursing its share of the first instalment (Rs 97.89 crore) to schools if the Central funds are delayed.
‘Centre delaying disbursal asking repeated queries’
The state had submitted the project proposal for the current academic year on July 4. But the Union government was delaying the disbursal asking repeated queries, the minister alleged. “It will be ensured that no teacher will have to bear the liability of implementing the noon meal scheme in schools,” Sivankutty asserted.
He added that the director of general education has been tasked to study and submit a report on the difficulties faced by school head teachers as part of implementing the noon meal scheme. A meeting of teachers’ unions will also be held to discuss the issue, he added.
Teachers’ woes [box]
Headteachers are in charge of implementing the noon meal scheme, and lack of funds have left them to in dire straits. Recently, the headmaster of an aided school in Thiruvananthapuram had to take a loan of Rs two lakh to run the noon meal scheme in the school. Owing to mounting liabilities on head teachers, a few teachers’ unions have announced protests in front of the government secretariat in the coming weeks.