Circular on World Egg Day fails to reach schools in time

A circular issued to make sure that elementary schools celebrate World Egg Day on October 9 has failed miserably. Brought out on October 8, the circular never reached city schools and neither did the eggs, the Maharashtra Permanent Unaided Schools Association alleged on Friday.

Sent out by director of primary education, Pune, Mahavir Mane to all officers of the primary education department, it states that the schools should celebrated this day by giving primary schoolchildren egg in their mid-day meal.

The director, in this circular, also stated that the education department received the instruction to celebrate October 9 as World Egg Day across Maharashtra from the state animal husbandry department, which was told so by the Centre. The central government's aim is to curb malnutrition in schools by getting them to provide their students mid-day meals having eggs.

Mumbai president of the association Prashant Redij said, "We are not against the celebration, but the circular has not reached the schools till date. The department should have come out with it a few days earlier, so that schools would have got time to make arrangements."

"Also, some schools may celebrate the day, some may not, particularly those having vegetarian crowd," he added.

Despite repeated calls, Mane remained unavailable for comment.