Telangana Education Commission recipe to end food poisoning in schools

The report includes two sections focusing on mid-day meals in non-residential schools and food quality in residential schools.
Image used for reopresentational purposes only
Image used for reopresentational purposes only
Updated on
3 min read

HYDERABAD: The Telangana Education Commission (TEC) has identified water contamination, poor storage facilities, undercooked food, lack of utensils and unhygienic conditions as key reasons for food contamination in state-run residential schools.

The TEC inspected over 250 state-run institutions, including residential schools, hostels, KGBVs, welfare schools and Anganwadi centres across 33 districts following a series of food poisoning incidents that affected several students and resulted in one death in November 2024.

The commission, led by chairman Akunuri Murali and members Prof Vishweshwara Rao, Dr Charakonda Venkatesh and Jyotsna Siva Reddy, conducted a two-week investigation, including overnight stays at the schools to observe the living conditions of students.

The commission found that most schools lacked access to clean drinking and cooking water; food grains, vegetables, eggs and other ingredients were poorly stored, often leading to spoilage; many schools, especially in remote areas, faced logistical challenges in procuring fresh food materials. It found that budget constraints hindered the availability of quality meals. The TEC submitted a detailed report, “Recommendations on the Midday Meal Scheme and Food Quality and Safety in Government Educational Institutions”, to Chief Secretary A Santhi Kumari.

The report includes two sections focusing on mid-day meals in non-residential schools and food quality in residential schools. The TEC chairman told TNIE: “For the mid-day meals, we suggested a 50% increase in the cost of the meals and streamline the payments of the SHGs who provide the cooking material from their own pockets to weekly basis instead of monthly.

TEC recommends uniform menu in schools

The TEC submitted a two-part report to the chief secretary recommending several changes to avoid further instances of food poisoning. “The first part of the report is about mid-day meals in the non-residential government schools and the second part is about food in the residential schools. We have also suggested that SoPs should be followed uniformly in all the schools for preparing the meals and cooking,” Murali disclosed.

Other major recommendations that the TEC proposed were to improve the menu and provide the same menu in all schools without any exception and also to introduce meals in intermediate schools to improve attendance.

The second part of the report for the Gurukuls (residential schools) suggests centralised procurement of food grains and other ingredients and that the Education & Welfare Infrastructure Development Corporation (EWIDC) be made the procurement body for all the welfare society schools to ensure that quality food is served.

“We made the recommendations based on extensive discussions with various stakeholders from vendors, school management, headmasters and principals, cooks, SHG workers and others. The recommendations would cost the exchequer an additional Rs 191 crore, approximately, and benefit over 28 lakh students,” Murali added.

Prof Vishweshwara Rao told TNIE, “We looked into the living conditions in the hostels and dormitories of the welfare schools. Many schools lacked proper lighting, ventilation, running water, hygiene and sanitation, hot water and other facilities, affecting the health of the students living in these schools. We have recommended in our report that these facilities be provided.”

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