Schools in Achham have seen an increase in their students’ enrolment rate after the introduction of the mid-day meal programme in the district.

Naina Singh Dhami, the headmaster of Kalika Basic School in Mangalsen Municipality-13, said students have become motivated to regularly attend classes because of the free lunch programme. The lunch package includes porridge with corn or millet flour bread.

The government had introduced the programme to encourage the students from poverty stricken families to attend schools. Schools in remote areas of Achham have been implementing the programme for the last two academic sessions. A total of 370 schools in the remote areas of Achham were part of the programme this year.  

According to the teachers in Achham, students have also shown an improvement in their learning activities after the programme was introduced in the district.

Hari Khatri, a teacher at Alaknanda Secondary School in Timalsain, said the mid-day meal programme has effectively decreased the number of school drop-outs. “Those children who had stopped attending school have started to return for the free meal. More and more children are accompanying their older siblings to school as well,” said Khatri.

Bidhya Sagar Mahato, unit chief of the School Mid-Day Meal Programme, said their campaign has been effective in encouraging students to attend schools in the district.