Thakurgaon
Free meals boost attendance at school
UNB
Free midday meals at Charbhita Primary School in Haripur upazila of the district has helped double the attendance rates among students, reports UNB. This is the only school in the entire Rangpur division to distribute free meals among students.
The schools principal, Irfan Ali, took the initiative to provide free meals for students.
Irfan Ali established the school on his own village land in 2001, with 50 students being taught in a bamboo fence room. Since its inception, the students of the school have always passed with flying colours maintaining a zero fail rate.
Currently, the school is run by four dedicated teachers who work in return of no salary. But due to persisting poverty in the village, parents of the students would rather send their children off to work to earn some money instead of going to school for study.
Hence Irfan planned of providing free meals at his school and started the initiative in July, 2014 with his own funds.
But he found it extremely difficult to maintain things on his own. Talking to UNB, Irfan said, I wanted to keep up the free meals scheme at my school to attract students at the primary education level and prevent them from dropping out early.
Currently, 176 students are studying at the school from Class 1 to 5. Every month, around Tk 33,000 is needed to feed the students, which is quite a large budget for a remote village like Charbhita, continued Irfan. To ensure funds for the schools free meal programme, Irfan later started his own poultry farm and papaya garden.
And the families in the community donate a handful amount of rice to the school every week.
Speaking about the schools free meals menu, Irfan said, Bread, bananas and eggs from my farm are served to the students for 3 days a week. For the remaining 3 days of the week, they are given healthy porridge with egg.
He added the free meal scheme has helped improve attendance rates among students at the school.
At present, around 90 percent of students attend their classes regularly which is a significant improvement from less than 50 percent class attendance in the past.
Fatima, a student of the school, told UNB, Earlier, it was hard to concentrate in class with a hungry stomach. But now the school gives us food and we are happy to go there to study.
Another student Alam said, We can study at school without any tension of hunger.
Local UP chairman Abu Taher said, this is the first school in the region to provide free meals to students and we want the meals to continue. The districts primary education officer, Md Abu Hares, said, when the whole community supports an initiative, it will surely gain success. Charbhita Primary Schools free meal programme is one such trailblazing example.
Hearing about this noble initiative of feeding school students for free, the districts deputy commissioner Mukesh Chandra Bishwas visited the school recently.
He had donated corrugated sheets with which a new school room has been built for accommodating students.
Mukesh Chandra said, We will use Charbhita Primary Schools free meals model to introduce similar programs in other schools of all upazilas in the district. Primary and Mass Education Minister Mostafizur Rahman have also paid a visit to the school.
