Constraints Faced by Teachers in Implementation of Mid-Day Meal Programme at School Level

Abstract

Mid-day meal programme was launched as a centrally sponsored programme on 15th August 1995. The mid day meal programme was introduced primarily to protect the nutritional as well as the educational rights of the children.  Teachers play a key role in the successful implementation of mid day meal programme at school level. Present study focuses on the constraints faced by them in the implementation of mid day meal programme. The present study (2015) was conducted in the purposively selected two villages Bhojla and Simarddha of Jhansi taluk, Jhansi district of Uttar Pradesh; Garag village and Yettingudda village from Dharwad taluk, Dharwad district of Karnataka. The sample size comprised of 200 teachers from the schools of selected villages of Dharwad (Karnataka) and Jhansi (Uttar Pradesh), where mid day meal is served (50 teachers from each village). Structured interview schedule was used to collect the primary data. Results showed that 97.00 per cent teachers had low mass media participation level. The study showed that most of (60.00 %) teachers are performing helper/cooks roles other than teaching such as cooking, cleaning and other arrangements due to lacking, irregularity and absenteeism of helpers/cook followed by more than (54.00%) of the teachers having complaints of improper toilet facility for school children as well as for them also and half (51.50%) of the teachers did not received any training regarding better implementation of mid day meal programme at school level. Related to other aspects such as adulteration, drinking water facility, teaching time, storage area, timely supply of foodgrains/cooked food and filling of mid day meal registers have shown positive result by the teachers under the programme.