Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin’s major breakfast scheme has given adequate health and educational benefits in the state government schools, the State Planning Commission (SPC) has found.
Special report titled ‘Chief Minister’s Breakfast Scheme: Impact on Children in Primary Classes in Government Schools’ said that due to breakfast scheme, admission in the hospital among primary class children in government schools declined by 63.2 percent and between December 2023 and December 2024, serious diseases were reduced by 70.6 percent.
According to the report, a copy of one copy of which is available, hospital tour among students of government primary schools decreased by 68.4 percent in rural areas and 29.4 percent in urban areas during this period, which highlights the impact of the program on nutritional challenges.
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Apart from health parameters, on March 13, Stalin was also found in the report submitted by the Tamil Nadu State Planning Commission that the scheme had helped to increase student engagement in class.
Survey of about 5,300 students from urban and rural schools received significant benefits in attention and understanding. The percentage of students who could focus on without indication could increase from 85.8 percent to 93.7 percent, while teachers’ ability to follow the instructions increased from 91.3 percent to 95.5 percent.
At the same time, more students are completing written work assignments, with rates from 89.6 percent to 95.4 percent. The capacity of memory retention and learning is also increasing, with the improvement from 71.4 percent to 77 percent and the capacity to jump new content is increasing from 88.1 percent to 92.5 percent.
Additionally, significant improvements in reading skills of students ranging from 88.9 percent to 94.2 percent were seen, speaking skills from 92.9 percent to 95.9 percent, and handwriting skills from 90.2 percent to 93.4 percent.
The breakfast scheme was launched in 1,545 government primary schools in September 2022, including 1.14 lakh students. It was expanded in all government primary schools in August 2023, which reached 31,008 schools in both rural and urban areas and 17 lakh students from class I to class V were given an annual budget of about Rs 500 crore in catering.
The breakfast menu, which varies each day, is to provide balanced nutrition. It includes Upma, Khichdi, Pongal and Semia Kesari. Each food is designed to provide 293 calories, 9.85 grams of protein, 5.91 grams of fat, 20.41 grams iron and 1.64 grams of calcium. Millets are also added to the menu twice a week to increase the nutritional price.
In his second year as Chief Minister, Stalin also personally went to a school to monitor a breakfast plan and serve food to students in 2022. In 2024, he also fed the students to the government for expanding the scheme to the government aided schools.
Executive Vice President and Economist J. J., the State Planning Commission. Jiyranjan said that the scheme had the most impact on rural students.
“The rural students were those who used to benefit more than their parents for most of the time, who used to go to work in the morning. The effect would be more in the coming days.”
He said, “When launching the plan, the only agenda was to ensure that children study in their classes without hunger. But, its effect is very large. Therefore, we have planned to increase the program and we have recommended the Chief Minister to bring food more diversification, and recommended it to make it more nutritious,” he said.
The SPC has also recommended targeted interventions to address nutritional deficiencies and ensure equal access, which increases the overall effectiveness of the program.
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Background of survey
Of the 30,992 primary schools in the state, SPC selected 100 schools with representation from all 38 districts. After obtaining consent from parents, data was collected from 3,944 students from 82 rural schools and 1,330 students from 18 urban schools.
The survey was conducted by the Community Medical Department of all government medical colleges under the leadership of Community Medical Department of Madras Medical College.
While the first round was held in December 2023, three follow -up rounds were held in March 2024, June 2024 and before the final one in December 2024.
ThePrint also spoke to a cross-section of teachers in primary schools, who said that the scheme proved to be effective beyond their expectations. In the urban area of Coimbatore, a teacher of a government primary school with more than 20 years of experience. Abraham said that since the implementation of the program, children’s attention was improved during morning classes.
He said, “Before implementing the plan, at least four to five people will faint during the morning assembly, but now, there is no such incident and the students’ attention is more,” he said. Teachers say that the scheme proved to be effective beyond their expectations.
Aruna said, “In 2022, we were talking about who would send their children to school without having breakfast in the 21st century. However, after implementing the scheme we proved wrong,” Aruna said that 98 percent of children in her school take advantage of the scheme.
Better nutritional level
Numbers are telling.
According to the report, the rate of attendance between December 2023 and December 2024 increased from 89 percent to 90 percent. Similarly, the restriction of time among students also increased from 97.2 percent to 98.4 percent in all socio-genius groups.
The study also highlighted the improvement in the nutritional level of students. Depending on their nutritional status, it classified them as normal, thin and severely thin, overweight and obesity. In December 2023, in the total number of students classified as ‘severely thin’, about 25.8 percent converted ‘thin’ and about 32.1 percent into ‘general’.
Similarly, in December 2023, among those classified as ‘thin’, 46.7 percent reached the ‘general’ category, while 42.6 percent became ‘normal’ in December 2023 with ‘more weight’.
However, the progress among students in the ‘obese’ category ‘was slow, with 17 percent’ overweight ‘and 20.8 percent shifted to’ common ‘.
Jiyarajan told Thrint that many factors affect the health of the students. “Schools provide breakfast and mid-day meals, but we never know how they are coming back to their home. Say, for example, if a student is suffering from diarrhea due to water contamination in his area, it will take back the health of the children for several months,” Jeeran said.
Improvement in the nutritional level of students is reflected in health parameters.
Students suffering from serious diseases in urban schools were about 80.3 percent and in rural schools about 68.9 percent.
While the rate of boys and girls hospitalized in hospital decreased by 57.1 percent and 64.7 percent respectively, boys and girls suffering from serious illnesses decreased by 72.9 percent and 67.5 percent respectively.
“A little better health results in girls can be attributed to their high immunity, which supports immune function due to body fat percentage in girls.”
The SPC has recommended that the Chief Minister extend the Stalin Yojana to higher classes.
“We only take care of them up to class V, but after that their nutritious level decreases if they return to their old routines again. Therefore, we have asked it to maintain the same nutritional levels and improve their educational performance,” Jeerynan said.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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