A school in Son La cut down on meals, nearly 43,000 VND only has rice and boiled eggs.

After feedback from parents and students, the Department of Education and Training of Song Ma district ( Son La ) led by Mr. Nguyen Cong Vien, Head of the Department of Education and Training, had a working session with Nam Ty Primary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities (on November 28).

Through inspection, the District Education and Training Department found that the menu for many meals of boarding students during the week only included boiled eggs and fried sausages. The dinner on October 24 included boiled eggs, vegetable soup and white rice; the afternoon meal on November 5 included 2 boiled eggs, white rice and vegetable soup for each student; the lunch on November 25 included white rice, vegetable soup and fried chicken.

Parents reported that meals did not ensure nutrition at Nam Ty Primary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities (Son La).

The menu of Nam Ty primary school for ethnic minorities publicly announced the financial cost of cooking meals for boarding students on November 28, including 13 types of food and spices for 536 students with a total cost of 20,130,000 VND.

Accordingly, each meal costs 37,556 VND, while Decree 116/2016 of the Government on support policies for students and general schools in extremely disadvantaged communes and villages stipulates that the support level for students is 936,000 VND/month, equivalent to 42,545 VND/day. However, the school only spent 37,556 VND, a shortfall of 4,989 VND/student.

In addition, at the time of inspection, the school had not publicly announced the boarding meals; had not publicly listed the unit supplying food and spices for cooking.

Previously, some parents whose children study at Nam Ty Primary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities reported to the press about the poor quality of meals, the lack of nutrition and the regime. According to the state-supported regime, each student is given nearly 43,000 VND for meals each day, but students always complain that the meals at school are very boring and difficult to eat.

“Sometimes, the children’s rice only has a little vegetable soup and 2 sausages, some days it only has vegetables and boiled eggs, some days it only has vegetables and tofu. There are also times when the menu is fried meat, but in reality it is fatty meat braised with a lot of water,” said one parent.

The parents said they had complained to the school's Board of Directors. The school's Board of Directors also responded that they would remind the kitchen to fix the problem, but the students' meals were still not adjusted.