By Our Correspondent
Nepalgunj, Nov. 10: The Day Meal Programme (DMP) launched by the federal government for all primary level students of community schools across the country has been effective in increasing the number of students in schools of rural areas in Banke district.
The number of school-going children has increased surprisingly after the introduction of the DMP in child development centres, community schools and madrasas in Narainapur Rural Municipality of the district.

Ishtiyak Ahammad Sah, chairman of the Rural Municipality, said that the number of students attending schools of Narainapur has increased as they get lunch of different tastes everyday in schools.
He said that the DMP was introduced by the federal government with a conditional grant targeting students from child development centres to five graders.
According to Krishna Kumar Tharu, education department head of the Narainapur Municipality, the school dropout rate, which was very high in the past, has declined significantly after the launching of the DMP in schools.

According to Tharu, earlier, a total of 25 per cent children of school-going age were out of the school but now after the introduction of the DMP, 20 per cent have started attending schools regularly.
Amar Lal Yadav, headmaster of Rastriya Aadharbhut School at Narainapur-6, Jamuni, said that they are facing a shortage of space in the school as the number of regular students has gone up after the DMP was introduced in the school. According to Yadav, the number of students in the school has increased from 376 to 443.

Not only in Rastriya Aadharbhut School, the number of students increased even in Madrasa Arabiya Gulsane Waris Unmatulum.
Abdul Rahman Khan, the headmaster of the madrasa, said that 307 students started attending madrasa after the lunch programme, whereas their number was too small in the past.
According to Dal Bahadur Basnet, Chief Administrative Officer of the Municipality, 47 community schools and madrasas are in operation in Narainapur Rural Municipality.