During school days, the midday meal programme had been a big relief for the tribal children living in the forest. Though the school is closed for summer vacations, this tribal school in Ranni will provide midday meals at the doorsteps of the homes of the tribal children till the school is reopened for next academic year.
Before summer vacations, Government Tribal LP School, Attathodu, located in the forest area of Ranni-Perunad grama panchayat, provided mouth-watering meals three times a day to the students. It was a big relief to the tribal students and their families and kept the students healthy. The project was executed by the school authorities with the help of the grama panchayat.
To ensure the health of the tribal children during vacations, the school has come forward with the new project christened 'Kaadu Ariyunnavarude Vayar Eriyathirikkuvan', which will be inaugurated on April 13. Under the project, the school with the help of local bodies and NGOs will provide midday meals to the tribal students at their doorsteps. The school has 40 students and of them, 38 are from the tribal communities. A majority of them belong to the Malampandaram tribe and 27 of them live inside the forest.
The school has two teachers — Sumesh Chandra and Abhilash B — and office assistant Vinod, besides Headmaster Biju Thomas. As the school is getting a good number of students, it is all set to start a pre-primary batch from the next academic year. The school made headlines recently as it introduced the gender-neutral school uniform — an initiative of the headmaster. According to Biju, theirs is the first tribal school in the country to have introduced the gender-neutral school uniform.
