Govt not to wait for Central funds for mid-day meal scheme

The state government will bear the expenses of the mid-day meal scheme for school children while it waits for the Centre to clear the funds’ release.

A mechanism was said to be on the main agenda of the government to rationalize appointments of teachers whether in respect of taking candidates qualified from the DSC quota for aided schools,  to maintain the 1:30 ratio in the schools plus selecting the Urdu teachers from the SC and ST categories through a test.

All this, plus mid-day meals scheme and construction of kitchens for schools and securing the funds from the Centre figured in the review meeting chaired by Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy at the Secretariat on Thursday as part of the programme to provide quality education to the government school students in the state.

It had been construed widely that education in the government schools lacked ‘quality’ and the Chief Minister emphasized on this point while instructing the officials to maintain standards.

The government was serious about appointing DSC qualified teachers in the aided schools with a view to maintaining better standards, announced Secondary and Intermediate Education Minister K Parthasarathi before media persons at the Secretariat on Thursday.

Mr Parthasarathi disclosed that as there was delay in securing Central funds for completing certain works in the Education Department, Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy had laid emphasis to utilize state funds.

The authorities were directed not to delay implementation of certain urgent programmes evolved. Central funds were being sought for providing mid-day meals from first to eighth classes. The state bears the expenses for the scheme for the ninth and tenth classes students.

The Chief Minister instructed the authorities concerned not to wait for Central release but go ahead to implement the scheme with the available state funds.

Over Rs 1,000 crore were released for 355 schools at the rate of Rs 3.2 crore for each Government School. Over 50,000 schools had no kitchens attached for various purposes despite funds’ released.

It was decided at the review meeting that the said kitchens be constructed employing manpower drawn from NREGS which would also help provide employment chances to the labour force.

As many as 133 junior colleges which were sanctioned during former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s regime were to be taken up now as the Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy was keen on providing a full-fledged and total budget covering priority works for the department, Mr Parthasarathi revealed.

The said budget would also cover to complete the infrastructure related to the said junior colleges.

The Minister also revealed that the Chief Minister had expressed keenness over the issue and arrived at a conclusion for evolving a budget to strengthen the education system.