Percentage of aided schools with coverage drops from 94.3 to 88.6 in past year
Despite the huge expenditure on education under the previous United Progressive Alliance government, latest statistics on elementary education show that the percentage of government and aided schools providing mid-day meals to students has dropped from 94.83 in 2012-2013 to 88.60 in 2013-14.
A similar drop has also been witnessed in the percentage of schools providing mid-day meals prepared outside the school premises. According to the data collected by the National University of Educational Planning and Administration on elementary education for the last fiscal, the percentage of schools providing meals cooked outside had dropped from 12.53 to 9.45.
In all States barring Uttar Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland, the mid-day meal coverage is over 90 per cent. While Manipur and Nagaland improved their coverage in 2013-14, Uttar Pradesh is one of the four States which saw a drop that is reflected in the national average.
The coverage of the scheme in Uttar Pradesh went down from 87.86 per cent to 82.99 per cent.
Besides U.P., Punjab witnessed a significant drop with the coverage going down from 96.37 per cent to 91.42 per cent. Other States where there has been a drop in coverage are: Delhi from 98.01 to 97.53 per cent, Goa from 96.04 per cent to 92.64 per cent and Rajasthan from 97.88 per cent to 97.7 per cent.
