HYDERABAD: The Telangana government has decided to introduce the midday meal scheme in all junior and degree colleges from this academic year. So far, the scheme had been available only for high school students in the state.
The introduction of the midday meal scheme in intermediate and degree college students is intended to reduce the dropout rate in government colleges. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao took a decision to this effect on Friday.
Students who were attending junior and degree colleges in the morning were leaving the colleges in the afternoon. As a result, the dropout rate was increasing in government junior and degree colleges, the Chief Minister said. If the students were provided nutritious food, then they would be healthy and it would also help in reducing the dropout rate, Rao felt.
A government lecturer Raghuram was spending money from his pocket to provide midday meals to junior college students in Jadcherla. When it came to the notice of the Chief Minister, he congratulated the lecturer and said that the government too recognised the need to introduce the scheme in junior and degree colleges. Rao also sanctioned a new building for a junior college in Jadcherla.