Nursery and LKG students should be covered in mid day meal, say Ludhiana teachers

A teacher said though the scheme is only for the students from class UKG onwards, if a student of a class lower than this asks for a meal, they are not refused as some extra food is always available

Teachers and parents of the students of kindergarten classes question the reason and purpose behind nursery and lower kindergarten (LKG) students not being provided the benefit of mid-day meal scheme, which was introduced with an aim to provide nutritional support to the students from disadvantaged sections of the society.

Kindergarten students of a primary government school having mid day meal in Ludhiana on Thursday. (Manish/HT)

The scheme is for all the government primary and high school students except for Classes nursery and LKG.

A head teacher of a primary school said, “Nowadays, teachers have been assigned election duties due to which we have to make the students of nursery, LKG and UKG sit together in one class. So, when out of the lot, only the students of UKG are taken to be served a mid-day meal, the remaining pupils question teachers about not being given food. Each and every student should avail the benefit of such government schemes aimed at providing nutritional content irrespective of the class that student is in.”

A parent, whose both kids study in the same school, said, “My son studies in Class 2 and daughter in LKG. Though their timings of dispersal are different, I only visit the school once to pick them both as I am a labourer and can not afford paying visit to the school twice or thrice and the situation is the same for many parents like me. So, my daughter stays in the school for a long time and we have to pack eatables for her as she is not eligible to have mid-day meals in the school.”

However, another teacher said though the scheme is only for the students from class UKG onwards, if a student of a class lower than this asks for a meal, they are not refused as some extra food is always available.

Director of education (elementary) Amaninder Kaur, remarked, “As per the scheme of the Government of India, the students of Class 1 to 8 are eligible to avail the benefits under mid-day meal scheme and we, in our state, are already covering an additional class, which is UKG, under the scheme. Also, the students of kindergarten attend the school for a very short duration but still, if any of the students is willing to have a meal in the school, the school staff unofficially caters to those students.”