Paper Title
Impact of Mid-Day-Meal Scheme on Quality Dimensions of Elementary Education
Abstract
Elementary Education plays an important role for providing solid foundation for Higher Education. It is the stage when foundation of a child’ over all development is laid. So, the present study has been designed with the purpose to find out the impact of Mid-Day-Mal Scheme on Enrolment, Attendance, Retention and Learning outcome of students of Government Elementary Schools. The main objectives of the study are: to study the impact of Mid-Day-Meal scheme on the enrolment of students in government schools at elementary school level; to compare the rise or fall in enrolment of students; its impact on the attendance of students and rise and fall in their attendance; to study the impact of mid-day-meal on retention of students in government elementary schools and to study the impact of mid-day-meal scheme on academic achievement of students. For this purpose, data related with enrolment, attendance, retention and academic achievement of students was taken from school record and percentage rise was calculated by comparing no meal, uncooked meal and cooked meal times. It was found that mid-day-meal scheme has positive impact on enrolment, attendance, retention and learning outcome of students. The study also concluded that this scheme is very beneficial for improving social interactions that develop a feeling of brotherhood among children and will ultimately lead to the development of National Integration.