87,000 students in Goa to get an egg a week in midday meal

PANAJI: When schools reopen for the new academic year 2020-21, an additional supplement of an egg every week will be added for the first time to the midday meals served to students of primary schools in Goa. Many other states are already supplementing the midday meal with eggs, milk and fruits.
The Goa government too had considered serving fruits some years ago through the horticulture corporation, but plans fizzled out as retaining the freshness of the fruit till the time it reaches the student might prove difficult.

Now, over 87,000 primary school students will get an egg as part of their midday meal once a week for six months. Until now, only vegetarian meals were served in Goa. The additional expense for serving eggs will be shared by the Centre and the state government, with Goa spending Rs 42 lakh more for the midday meal scheme in 2020-21.
“After detailed discussions, the project approval board-midday meal approved the proposal of the state to provide an egg once in a week for six months to 87,500 primary school children at an estimated expenditure of Rs 105 lakh, comprising of Rs 63 lakh as central share and Rs 42 lakh as state share,” states the approval by the central government to the state’s proposal.
The review meeting of the midday meal scheme in Goa had to be held by the central government officials with state officials over video conferencing in March this year due to the pandemic. At the review, it was found that 85,386 primary school children had availed the midday meals during 2019-20, or 89% of the total enrolment. At the upper primary school level, 54,477 or 83% children were served the meals.
In previous reviews, Goa had been asked to consider adding supplementary nutrition to the midday meals like milk, eggs or fruits.
“A total of 26 samples of meals were collected by the Food & Drugs Administration (FDA) from randomly selected schools for testing their energy and protein. Only three samples were found substandard for which necessary remedial actions were taken by the state directorate of education,” Goa informed the central government officials at the review.
During previous academic years, state officials had said that schools were facing internet connectivity problems while updating live data to the automated monitoring system on the quality and quantity of midday meals served. Nearly 55% of the schools had provided live updates to the automated system during 2019-20.