Bangalore : Schools are  temples of knowledge. But it seems they are considered as mere lesson making  shops. In a way schools play a very important role in the educational, social and all-round development of students.  Therefore schools and teachers  have a very import responsibility of  shaping the future generation. The society has a lot of expectations from the schools and teachers. In accordance  to this expectation, the Central Government as per the Supreme Court ruling has introduced midday meal scheme in all government schools across the nation.

One of the objectives of introducing this scheme was to increase the attendance of children and also to develop them as healthy citizens by offering nutritious food.

 It is a fact that a large chunk of the nation’s population is reeling under poverty. Let alone send their children to schools, they find it difficult to have even one square meal per day.  The children of such families end up as child labourers or die of malnutrition. In the backdrop of these aspects, the mid-day meal scheme proves very vital. As this scheme has been introduced at primary school level itself, teachers have a very important responsibility.

In Bihar following the mid-day meal tragedy, the teachers have boycotted this scheme. Even the Allahabad High Court has ruled that the duty of the teachers is to impart knowledge to the students and not to prepare food for them. As far as Bihar is concerned, the state government  had failed to utilize the funds sanctioned by the Centre as well as  arrangements made to recruit enough staff for preparing mid-day meal. The unused funds have thus been sent back to the centre.The main reason for the Bihar tragedy is the failure of the  state government to effectively implement the scheme. Therefore there is no need for teachers to end up in confusion, In Karnataka the mid-day meal programme is carried out smoothly. There are separate arrangements for the same. The teachers do not consider the scheme as a burden but do their duties diligently thus quenching the hunger for food and knowledge of the students.

At the same time there are problems like lack of staff, lack of cleanliness etc. There is an urgent  need for the government to look into these problems.  There is a need to see that there is no Bihar like tragedy.  There would be no problem at all if teachers consider  the mid-day ,meal scheme implementation as a mode of helping their students and  ensuring a bright future for them. At the same time no scope should be given for market forces in the scheme as well as  there should be no efforts to cancel it.