The issues being faced in the mid-day meal scheme for schoolchildren will be resolved in consultation with the Centre, Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty has said.
The scheme is a project designed by the Centre. Sixty per cent of funds are given by the Centre, while the State government’s share is 40%. Hence, the Centre’s assistance is required for the smooth implementation of the scheme, he said after inaugurating the new labs at Government Higher Secondary School at Vennala here on Saturday.
Maintaining that the government had spent ₹3,800 crore for the development of basic infrastructure in the general education sector, Mr. Sivankutty said the government’s intent was to provide the best of education to students in government, aided, unaided and CBSE schools. The labs at the school were set up using ₹1.2 crore assistance under the Kochi Corporation’s People’s Plan Programme for 2022-23.
The Minister also inaugurated the new building at Government Lower Primary School, Ernakulam. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Sivankutty said the public education sector had been able to effectively utilise the advantages of technology in the teaching-learning process. He claimed that the government was able to offer online education during the pandemic. “We have been able to develop innovative digital learning platforms. Such online platforms have been used for tracking the attendance of students, their academic performance, and data related to the evaluation of answer sheets of various exams,” he said.
The new building at the Government Lower Primary School was set up utilising ₹1 crore allocated under the government’s public education protection programme. An assistance of around ₹28 lakh was given under the Samagra Shiksha Kerala project.
