The increase in allocation for the Mid-Day Meal Scheme in the Union Budget this year has drawn a mixed response from the education sector. For some, it is just a standard inflationary increase (up from ₹ 9,700 crore to ₹10,000 crore), while others see it as a concrete change.
Mahesh Palkar, Education Officer of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), says the budget has increased by the same amount it goes up year to year. However, he says the nutritional quality of the mid-day meal will improve in government schools this year. The BMC has set up a nutrition committee, comprising doctors and nutritionists, which over the next two months will give Mr. Palkar suggestions to enhance the meals.
Different schools, quality
The quality of food varies from school to school. Nishigandha Babardesai, a Teach for India fellow, who teaches Class IX students in a municipal school, says, “Many children, especially in the higher grades, don’t prefer to eat the food. They eat from outside even though we are a relatively better school in Mumbai and get good quality food [from the ISKCON Hare Krishna temple in Juhu]. There are no nutrition checks on the food, but the students undergo a health check-up.”
Aaran Patel, a Teach For India fellow, says the food students get at his school in Worli is monotonous in terms of nutritional value. “It is khichdi three days a week, and sometimes dal chawal or pulao. For many students, this is the only proper meal and source of nutrition of the day; it should be given importance and made more nutritional.”
e-learning: long road ahead
The other takeaway from the Budget was the focus on e-learning, which goes hand-in-hand with the quality of teaching. e-learning is difficult in many schools because of infrastructural and logistical problems, says Ms. Babardesai. In her school, lessons are taught using digital screens, but there are two problems. First, the Internet, wireless connectivity, and provision of plug points varies from school to school. Ms. Babardesai’s classroom has only one plug point. Second, lessons taught via digital screens are often not as interactive as a regular lesson beacuse the content is confusing and there is little scope for measuring students’ retention level.
Madhav Chavan, founder and CEO of education non-profit Pratham, says digital learning must be supplemented by teacher inputs. “The main issue is whether teachers integrate digital methods and whether technology will be allowed to modify what children learn and how they learn. We have a long way to go.” There is an increased focus throughout education departments on digitisation. Mr. Palkar says digitising billing and administration processes in schools is also a key goal for the BMC. “Implementation and nutrition are the two big goals for education this year.” He said teacher training was also important to effectively execute digital learning.
Shortage of teachers
The Teach for India fellows highlight the shortage of teachers. Mr. Patel says, “At the beginning of the fellowship, my school had just five full-time teachers for eight classes.” B.B. Chavan, Education Inspector, South Mumbai, says, “Some schools have a shortage, but Maharashtra on average has a higher pupil-to-teacher ratio than the national average and the Right To Education requirement.”
While teacher training is no longer a compulsory scheme at the Central level, the quality of education is an ongoing concern. Mr. Chavan says in primary classes the quality has been showing an improvement over the past two or three years, but the focus is on measuring the quality of secondary education in Mumbai.
