Polasara, July 6: Despite the government’s tall claims of offering several facilities to school-going children, students of various schools still consume mid-day meal prepared in extremely unhygienic condition due to lack of kitchens, a report said.
A primary school at tribal-dominated Raipada village under Pandiripada panchayat of this block in Ganjam district is a case in point.
As the school doesn’t have a kitchen, the noon meal is prepared under a shed covered by torn polythene sheets that too in a very unhealthy condition, putting the health of students at risk.
Free text books, uniforms and meals are given to students from Class I to VIII studying in government schools under the Sarva Sikhya Abhiyan. However, the claims of the government often sound empty, it was learnt.
According to reports, the school in Raipada, having student strength of 53 from Class I to V, has only two teachers.
The school campus has turned into the grazing field of stray farm animals in the absence of a boundary wall around it.
As the kitchen functions from the polythene shed, meals are not prepared in case of rain which leaves student in empty stomach.
Neither the cluster resources centre coordinator nor the officials of the school and mass education department bother to address the issue, alleged some guardians.
When contacted over the issue, headmaster Ramchandra Sethy said in the absence of a proper kitchen, meals are prepared in a makeshift room in unhygienic condition.
The authorities concerned don’t pay heed to the problems even as he has already written to the department on several occasions, Sethy added.
School managing committee president Bipra Charan Pradhan said apart from the kitchen problem, the institution is plagued by a slew of difficulties including the unavailability of safe drinking water.
Block education officer Dharanidhar Jani said the higher-ups of the department have been apprised of the problems. Things would be sorted out as soon as possible, the officer added. PNN