Daily allowance for school meals increases, Ed. Ministry calls for aid
View(s):The Education Ministry is to appeal for international assistance to keep the school meal alive by increasing the meal allowance.
Accordingly, the Ministry is seeking to increase the daily allowance from Rs. 30 a day to Rs. 60 or Rs. 70 taking into consideration the increasing cost of food prices.
Education Ministry sources said they would be appealing to the Asian Development Bank, UNICEF and the World Bank.
The Education Ministry is planning to submit a Cabinet paper in this regard as it estimates that the annual requirement for the midday meal programme will be around Rs. 5000 million.
According to UNICEF, the current crisis in Sri Lanka left nearly half of the children in the country in need of some form of humanitarian assistance.
The UN launched an appeal to address the urgent needs of the most vulnerable population within the next four months.
To scale up response to the rising needs of children in the next seven months, UNICEF appealed for US$ 25.3 million to save lives and bring nutrition, healthcare, safe drinking water, education, and mental health services to 1.7 million vulnerable children in Sri Lanka.
“The current crisis is stretching families to their limits,” said UNICEF Representative in Sri Lanka Christian Skoog.
“Children are going to bed distressed and on empty stomachs. Many children are not regularly attending school, and hospitals are fast running out of medicines, including for children and pregnant women. If we do not act now, it is the most vulnerable boys and girls who will pay the highest price for a crisis not of their making.”
Even before the current crisis, Sri Lanka had the second highest child malnutrition rate in South Asia, and two in five infants were not fed the minimum acceptable diet, according to UNICEF statistics.
With soaring food prices, 70 per cent of households reported reduced food consumption, and the fuel crisis and frequent power cuts hindered vital services for children, including healthcare and education. Access to safe water for drinking and domestic use is declining, posing an increased risk of water-borne diseases, the UNICEF representative added.
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