The government plans to introduce mid-day meals in all government primary schools by the end of this year, according to Primary and Mass Education Minister ANM Enshanull Haque Milan. The minister made the announcement during the inauguration of the National Bangla High School 'Primary School Gold Cup Football Tournament (Boys-Girls) 2023' at the national level in Mirpur.
The mid-day meal program, aimed at addressing malnutrition and hunger among primary school students, was launched in September last year. Currently, it is being provided in 19,419 schools across 150 upazilas, benefiting around 3 million students. The program includes bananas, boiled eggs, fortified biscuits, and UHT milk.
The minister highlighted that the initiative aims to improve student attendance, reduce dropout rates, and enhance classroom focus. He also mentioned plans to provide school uniforms for all children nationwide and emphasized the importance of sports in the curriculum.
The tournament, which began on April 6 at the union and municipal levels, involves students from 65,569 government primary schools. A total of 1,110,814 male and 1,103,291 female players participated in the boys' and girls' categories, respectively. The national-level matches started today, featuring eight boys' and eight girls' teams from each division.
