Why are many schools not interested in organizing boarding meals?

There are still many problems in collective kitchens.

The delegation to supervise food safety management work under the management of the health sector in districts, towns and Vinh city, Nghe An province in 2023 began to be organized at the end of September, implemented by the provincial Department of Food Safety and Hygiene.

In addition to monitoring collective kitchens in business establishments, the delegation will monitor the implementation of food safety and hygiene in collective kitchens in schools. In particular, focusing oncontents such asrecords, related procedures and actual conditions of collective kitchens under the management authority of districts, towns and cities; taking samples of drinking water for students at schools with boarding kitchens. During the monitoring process, combine with guidance on knowledge and legal regulations on ensuring food safety to raise awareness and responsibility of facility owners and employees directly processing and trading food.

After nearly 1 month of implementation, according to initial reports, some collective kitchens in schools still have some violations.

As in Nghi Loc district, supervision atcommunal kitchenAt Nghi Quang Primary School, the facility has not yet presented the Food Sample Logbook, the 3-step Food Inspection Book is incomplete; the walls and floors of the preparation and processing areas are not guaranteed, there is still stagnant water; there is a lack of shelves to display food.

In Que Phong district, supervision at Tri Le Kindergarten discovered that the facility had not equipped trash cans with tight lids, that protective clothing was inadequate, and that food sample storage did not comply with regulations on the number of samples stored.

At Dien Chau Town Primary School (Dien Chau), there is still a situation where the food storage warehouse is not properly arranged and food sample storage is not carried out in accordance with regulations.

Meanwhile, at Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Primary School (Hung Nguyen), the facility owner has not been confirmed to have received training in food safety knowledge; the 3-step food inspection regime is not implemented in accordance with regulations.

Regarding the supervision of school kitchens, Mr. Pham Van Quy - Head of the Provincial Food Safety and Hygiene Department added: Ensuring food safety in school kitchens is under the authority of the locality. However, through the supervision results, we see that there are still shortcomings and inadequacies due to inadequate facilities, and some schools have not properly implemented the procedures of school kitchens. We have reminded and requested the districts to rectify the organization of boarding kitchens, ensuring procedures and regulations on food safety, in order to avoid unfortunate incidents.

Difficult to replicate boarding model

In Nghe An province, there are hundreds of schools organizing boarding for students at schools, including "full coverage" at preschool level; middle school and high school levels are organized at semi-boarding schools or boarding schools for ethnic minorities. In primary school, this model has only been implemented in favorable areas such as Vinh city, Do Luong, Nghi Loc, and Cua Lo town. In other localities, due to various reasons, many schools are not interested.

Hung Nguyen is a locality bordering Vinh city and is considered to have many advantages if implementing boarding school. However, up to this point, the whole district has only Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Primary School, located in the town, that maintains this model.

Previously, to promote the effectiveness of the boarding school model, Hung Dao Primary School and some schools in Hung Nguyen district also wanted to deploy and plan to implement it. However, after a period of interruption due to the Covid-19 pandemic and partly due to difficult implementation conditions, the expansion of the boarding school model is still facing many difficulties.

Regarding this, Ms. Cao Thi Mai - Deputy Head of the Department of Education and Training of Hung Nguyen district said: Organizing boarding schools creates favorable conditions for teaching and learning, especially teaching 2 sessions/day at primary level, helping parents feel secure, limiting the need to pick up and drop off every day. Meanwhile, students eat and sleep regularly, are supervised by the school, so their daily schedule and study schedule are guaranteed. However, in reality, the number of schools qualified to organize boarding schools in the area is very small due to lack of teachers and staff. Many schools such as Hung Yen Bac Primary School, Nguyen Truong To Primary School, Hung Nghia Primary School,ElementaryHung Linh… has a very small area, there is no land to build a kitchen. More importantly, there are no resources to organize boarding and we have to rely on socialization and mobilization from parents, which is very difficult.

In Nam Dan District, despite the mobilization of schools, only 4 primary schools in the area have organized boarding schools. At Nam Giang Primary School, the school has just invested 6 billion VND to build a dining area and a dormitory with 10 rooms for students, but this school year, although it is the first year of implementation, only 228/698 students have participated. Moreover, although organizing boarding schools, the school does not have a kitchen but is cooperating with a local restaurant to provide meals for students, with each meal costing 20,000 VND. This is also a similar form being implemented in 3 other schools in the area.

If we organize cooking, we must have equipment and hire more chefs. But with the current salary of only a few million VND/month and only 9 months of work per year, it is very difficult to hire workers. Moreover, if we implement mass boarding, the school will lack teachers for lunch because the current teaching staff of the school is very short...

Teacher Pham Xuan Duong - Principal of Nam Giang Primary School (Nam Dan)

Even in Nghi Loc district, although 30/30 primary schools have implemented boarding, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Trung - Deputy Head of the Department of Education and Training also admitted: After the incident at Nghi Thai Primary School, we established an inspection team to inspect the collective kitchens in the schools. However, the reality is that many schools do not have adequate conditions for organizing boarding, such as not having separate dining rooms, not having one-way kitchens, and the implementation process is not correct.

The implementation of boarding schools creates many favorable conditions for schools in organizing teaching and learning, especially with the 2-session/day program. To encourage schools in the implementation process, there needs to be urging, attention and support from local authorities and support from parents and students.