Effectiveness of Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDMS) in Primary Schools

Abstract

Education enhances the knowledge of a child, allows exploring his potentials and living as a respected citizen of civilised nations. Lacking in basic education narrow down the human mind and leads to poverty, hunger and crime. The government of India has made education compulsory for 6 to 14 years age group children. In this backdrop, government of India has launched Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDMS) to address the most critical problems of the society. Presently, the scheme is being implemented in lower primary (LP) and upper primary (UP) classes. The study is an attempt to analyse effectiveness of MDMS in LP and UP schools of Golaghat district in Assam. The study covers both primary and secondary data. Secondary data collected from newspapers, research articles and published documents of government departments to support the research objectives. A qualitative open ended questionnaire was prepared to measure the effectiveness of MDMS in three schools. A set of questionnaires were prepared for the survey of Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs (FCSCA) department of district, headmaster/mistress and primary school students. Collected data was analysed using MS Excel tools to get the conclusions. The findings of research can be categorised in three different areas such as Department of FCSCA; headmaster/mistress of UP and LP schools; Students of UP and LP Schools. The study concludes with few recommendations such as continuing of MDMS, focus on hygiene environment, monitoring mechanism and suggested for a complete education package for school students. Continuing of MDMS will prevent child labour and children’s from poor family backgrounds will get educated.

Keywords: Mid-Day Meal (MDM), Primary Schools, Students, Education, Golaghat

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