BHUBANESWAR: To help them direct their entire focus on teaching in wake of NEP implementation, primary school teachers have urged the government to relieve them of non-teaching duties including management of mid-day meals.
In a letter to the commissioner-cum-secretary of the School and Mass Education department, nodal officer of MDM and director of elementary education recently, the teachers under the aegis of All Utkal Primary Teachers’ Federation said, since a new component of NEP, Sishu Vatikas, has been added to the primary grades, the workload on them has increased significantly.
While new components like nutri-rich laddoos and extra eggs besides, students of Class IX and X are being served MDM and changes in the school syllabus is also in the offing under NEP.
Keeping in view that their academic work burden is bound to increase under NEP, the teachers suggested outsourcing the MDM work to either self-help groups or a private agency.
This apart, they also urged the department to provide eggs to children on Saturdays as was the practice before. Under the new MDM menu, children are being provided laddoos on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and eggs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. “As students loved eating eggs on Saturdays, the government should restore egg meals on the day,” they said and also urged the department to increase the cooking cost of egg meals.