Chennai, Apr 24 (IANS): The Tamil Nadu school education department will soon appoint coordinators for extending the free breakfast scheme to all primary schools in the state.

According to officials from the school education department, a coordinator will be appointed for each educational district in the state.

District education officers (elementary) will oversee the programme which is a flagship programme of the DMK government under Chief Minister M.K. Stalin.

The department has asked for the details of the number of students in each primary school and have directed teachers and school heads to be part of the programme which ensures that breakfast is provided to all primary school children in the state.

The scheme is expected to cover 30,122 primary schools of the state and benefit 18 lakh students. The state government has already allocated an amount of Rs 500 crores for the project in the recent budget.

Notably, Chief Minister Stalin had inaugurated the free breakfast scheme for primary school students on September 14, 2022, at Adhimoolam primary school, Madurai.

The scheme was launched in 1,545 primary schools across the state at a cost of Rs 33.56 crore and benefitted 1.14 lakh students in the first phase.

The success of the first phase of the programme has prompted the government to extend this project across the state in all government primary schools and an amount of Rs 500 crore is earmarked for the same.