The Parliamentary Committee on Ways and Means has instructed the Ministry of Education to provide a report on the progress of the meal programme introduced for primary school children.
Chair of the Committee, MP Patali Champika Ranawaka says a report was called to ascertain whether there has been an increase in student attendance in primary schools following the meal programme.
The Education Ministry has also been instructed to provide a report on schools with less than 100 students with the mid-day meal programme, to provide the number of students in primary grades and the number of students given meals in schools where there are only less than 100 students.
Apart from the said, MP Patali has also instructed the Ministry of Education to report on the progress regarding the entire school meal programme.
The above matters were discussed when the Parliamentary Committee on Ways and Means met at the Parliament premises under the chairmanship of MP Patali Champika Ranawaka recently.
It was disclosed during the Committee meeting that the meals provided to children in government schools have increased from 1.1 million to 1.6 million in 2024, while the Rs. 80 allotted for each child has increased to Rs. 110.
It was also informed that criteria have been prepared regarding the quality of the meal and the follow-up regarding the meal programme will be done by the Provincial Department of Education, Regional Educational Services officers and public health inspectors.
It was reported that 600,000 school students come to school without breakfast, and after the implementation of this meal programme, the attendance of school children has increased.
It was also stated that 16.6 billion rupees are spent on school meals per year, but there is a shortfall of about 4 billion rupees.
MP Patali said although Sri Lankans abroad are very willing to provide assistance for the school meal programme, they are reluctant to provide such assistance directly to the government. He, therefore, instructed the officials to find out whether there is any legal obstacle to providing such assistance to teachers’ unions and school development societies.
Furthermore, he instructed to prepare a system for receiving complaints based on social media and stated to use a system such as regular reporting on the quality of food provided through WhatsApp. (Newswire)