MADURAI: Scare and infection apart, coronavirus is spreading hunger as well. Many tribal children, beneficiaries of government’s mid-day meal scheme, are forced to work as labourers in sugarcane farms in a bid to fill their stomach.
The situation has prompted many educationists and social activists to urge the government to distribute cereals, grains, eggs and the like or allowance to the students through rations shops.
President of The Movement of Save School Education V Vasanthi Devi said that it would be impractical for the government to distribute cooked food every day to children during the lockdown.
“The authorities could distribute the essential items required to make a mid-day meal. Nearly 90 per cent parents of the beneficiaries of the mid-day meal scheme are jobless now,” she said. Citing the example of Kerala, Vasanthi said that the neighbouring state has been supporting the beneficiaries of midday meals by providing essential items to their families.
“In Tamil Nadu, many tribal children are now engaged in cutting sugarcanes. If this continues, it will be very difficult to bring them back to schools when they reopen,” she said.
Speaking to Express, Madurai MP S Venkatesan said that the government should ensure the food security of those students who are beneficiaries of the mid-day meal scheme even during the lockdown.
The headmaster of Dr T Thirugnanam Primary School (government- aided) said that the Centre has been providing Rs 4.35 per day as mid-day meal expenses.
“An average of 76 days of mid-day meal needs to be given to each student. The government could distribute this food allowance in the form of eggs, rice and the like. It will not burden the government as the amount for this has already been allotted,” he said.
He further said that Uttar Pradesh government passed an order on Friday for distributing food security allowance in the form of cash to the bank accounts of the students’ parents.
Quoting news reports, child rights activist TR Parvathavarthini said that on regular days, 25 per cent of schoolchildren are coming to schools without having their breakfast.
“At least from now on, the government should support the children until the schools reopen,” she added.
‘Schools to reopen after results are announced’
CHENNAI: Schools will reopen only after the results of the public examinations are announced, said School Education Minister KA Sengottaiyan, on Thursday.
He said, “As this year the teachers received less time, we have set up an expert committee to review measures needed to complete the syllabus. Ideally, teachers need 210 working days to complete syllabus.”
Midday meal: Over 1.5 Lakh beneficiaries
Over 43 lakh students in the State are beneficiaries of the mid-day meal scheme.
The scheme was introduced by the then Chief Minister Kamaraj in 1956 to provide at least one meal per day to the lakhs of schoolchildren from financially poor families. In Madurai district alone, as many as 1,50,375 students are beneficiaries of the scheme.
Last date for private colleges to submit fee
CHENNAI: The Directorate of Technical Education has extended the last date for colleges to submit their fee proposal for three consecutive academic year starting 2020-21, till June 15.
The State Committee on fixation of fee in respect of self-financing professional colleges had earlier asked the principals of private engineering and arts colleges and polytechnic colleges to submit the fee proposal for their institution by May 30.
The fee for the time period will be fixed based on the proposal sent by the institutions.
Hall tickets issued for State public exams
CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Directorate of Government Examinations (DGE) started the distribution of hall tickets for students who will soon write their Class 10 State Board public examinations.
The exams will be conducted from June 15-25. Students can either download the hall tickets from the DGE website or collect it from their schools.
The Director of School Education has informed schools that students shall collect their hall tickets from their schools after slotting pre-assigned time to maintain social distancing. Meanwhile, schools are using roll number or alphabetic order to distribute hall tickets.
The government has also issued the hall tickets for private candidates as well as Class 11 and 12 students who missed out on their exams during the lockdown.
Schools have been directed to deliver the hall tickets to students who live in containment zones or are in-home quarantine.