New body to inspect residential schools

​Hyderabad: The Telangana State Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TSWREIS) has decided to establish an exclusive Inspectorate of Residential Schools (IRS).

According to official sources, the decision has been taken following the State government’s move to introduce balanced diet in SC, ST, BC and other residential schools following the recommendations made by the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad.

The decision to introduce new menu which will be common for all the residential schools has been taken to combat malnutrition among the students coming from the deprived and poorer sections of the society,” said the TSWREIS Secretary R S Praveen Kumar.

There are about 27,880 students studying in the Tribal Welfare Residential Schools and 95,470 are studying in the Social Welfare Schools. With the opening of the new schools for BCs, the total number of students studying in the BC residential schools has gone up to about 42,600.

As part of the new menu, a student would be getting non-vegetarian food six times in a month, besides ghee, pickle during lunch and dinner every day.

While Mysore bonda, poori, chapathi, noodles and idly would be served for breakfast, cookies and pakoda would be given as snacks in the evening.

As the objective is to combat malnutrition among the students, the department wants to ensure quality supply of food reaches the students and hence it has decided to establish an exclusive IRS.

To make the functioning of the new department effective, “software has been developed to closely monitor the supply of food to the students on daily basis,” Praveen Kumar said.

The department would be established at the TWSREIS office headquarters in Hyderabad and it would take up surprise checks and sudden visits to the institutions to check the quality of food.

Any deviation from the menu prescribed and compromise in the quality would be taken seriously and action would be initiated against the erring catering contractors as well as the officials concerned, he said.

The cooks working in the TSWREI would be provided training by the expert chefs on how to prepare quality and delicious food in a hygienic environment.

Adding to this, in a first of its kind initiative in the country, accountability has been fixed on Physical Education Trainers (PETs), Physical Directors (PDs), house masters and health supervisors on desired body-mass index (BMI) of the children studying in these schools.

This was necessary as the primary objective is to break the cycle of the chronic malnutrition and impaired physical and cognitive development among these children, he added.