The Government’s mid-day meal programme for schoolchildren has come to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a teachers’ trade union. The Ceylon Teachers Union’s Nuwara Eliya District Secretary V. Indraselvan said that as a result of the mid-day meal programme not being implemented due to the closure of schools, poor children had [...]

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School mid-day meal programme: A victim of pandemic

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The Government’s mid-day meal programme for schoolchildren has come to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a teachers’ trade union.

The Ceylon Teachers Union’s Nuwara Eliya District Secretary V. Indraselvan said that as a result of the mid-day meal programme not being implemented due to the closure of schools, poor children had become emaciated without proper nutritious food.

He noted that during the pandemic’s first wave, dry rations were distributed among school children instead of cooked meals but with schools being closed during the major part of the second and the third wave of the pandemic, this facility had ceased.

The trade union leader urged the Government to restore the programme as many parents were finding it difficult to feed their children.

Mr. Indraselvan also said the district’s children were yet to receive uniform material and text books.

In his recent address to the nation, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said that Rs. 25 billion had been allocated for education this year.

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