NILPHAMARI, July 30, 2020 (BSS) – More than 1.71 lakh students of 1,014 primary level educational institutions of five upazilas in the district received 513.52 tonnes of nutritious biscuits in the second phase during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Officials said the door-to-door distribution of the biscuits with 40 packets to each of the students began from July 20 and ended today in the second phase after distributing 641.91 tonnes of biscuits among them with 50 packets each from May 7 last to May 22 last in the district.
Directorate of Primary Education under School Feeding Programme (SFP) of Ministry of Primary and Mass Education distributed the biscuits in poverty-prone areas with assistance of the district, police and upazila administrations through RDRS Bangladesh.
The Upazila Nirbahi Officers, Upazila Education Officers, Headmasters, Assistant Teachers and Members of School Managing Committees and School Feeding Officers of RDRS Bangladesh reached the biscuits to the students at their doorsteps.
The biscuits were distributed among the students of 996 government primary schools, Shishu Kallyan Trust-run five schools and 13 ebtedayee madrasah in Sadar, Kishoreganj, Jaldhaka, Domar and Dimla upazilas of the district.
The biscuits were distributed among the beneficiary students from door-to-door strictly maintaining physical distancing to prevent community transmission of COVID-19 infection.
Talking to BSS today, Project Coordinator Anondo Kumar Poul of the SFP of RDRS Bangladesh said the biscuits were distributed door-to-door to meet nourishments of the students for smooth studies amid COVID-19 outbreak since March 17 last.
Since 2012, each student of the 1,014 primary level educational institutes are getting one packet of high energetic biscuits containing 75 gram each daily at the first period of school time.
“The SFP was launched to reduce school drop-outs and improve learning capacity of students by removing micronutrient deficiency for ensuring universal primary education by ensuring access to basic education for all children from poor households,” Poul added.
In the second phase, Kishoreganj Upazila Assistant Education Officer Sharifa Akhter launched the door-to-door biscuit distribution on July 20 last while Assistant Upazila Education Officer of Dimla upazila Md. Rasheduzzaman finished the process today.
“The SFP was launched to reduce school drop-outs and improve learning capacity of students by removing micronutrient deficiency for ensuring universal primary education by ensuring access to basic education of all children from poor households,” Paul added.
District Primary Education Officer Nobez Uddin Sarker highly lauded the government initiative of distributing nutritious biscuits among the students in poverty-prone areas to meet their nutrition for smooth studies in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.